The University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest has been participating in the European Commission’s higher education programme, Erasmus since 2003. The programme has opened a great opportunity to widen transnational co-operation between higher education institutions by promoting mobility for students and teaching staff, and improving transparency and academic recognition of studies and qualifications throughout Europe.
The University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest (UVMB) has a 230 year old history. As it is the only institution in Hungary that provides veterinary education, closer professional cooperation has always been possible only with foreign universities. Thus, the University’s international connections have been strong since its foundation.
Besides the countries of the European Union, our international mobility destinations have also been Serbia, Norway, Macedonia and Turkey.
Veterinary universities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire are parts of the VetNEST network. UVMB is traditionally in close professional relationship with these universities. At the annual conferences members get a thorough overview of the potential changes in the study programmes of the other universities. The VetNEST countries have always been our destinations in the Erasmus Mobility program as well.
Traditionally we have a strong relationship with veterinary universities in Western European countries as well. Besides Anglo-Saxon and German universities, we also have partnerships with institutions where the language of instruction is English or German, or a language that is potentially spoken by any of our students.
Due to our several decade old bilateral relationships, we consider the Austrian, German and Dutch veterinary universities to be our primary strategic partners. Our goal is to deepen our already existing cooperation with the other program-countries as well.
We also have a good relationship with the Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish Erasmus partners. In these countries instead of forming new partnerships we would like to focus on livening the cooperation with the already existing ones. Increasing the faculty members’ mobility is a priority for our institution, just like enhancing the mobility of the administrative staff. Implementing blended mobility can help the process of inclusion among staff and students.
Our goal is to make our training structure and curriculum more compatible with our partner institutions, so that the 75% compatibility – that is necessary for the transferable ECTS credits students earn in foreign universities – can be achieved with as many courses as possible.
Shared training with foreign partner institutions is only planned at this point.
Besides enhancing teacher and staff mobility, keeping the incoming student numbers high is also our goal. This does not require extra effort as the entire veterinary education is available in English.
Besides all this, we think it is important to enhance digital skills and simplification of the process obtaining a scholarship hence we plan to use online platforms where it is possible and we have already made the first steps in order to achieve this.
We find foreign mobility important, and our long term goal is to have at least 20% of our Hungarian students partake in study abroad programs.
As our graduates start their career at the European job market, we find it necessary to learn the good practices from other veterinary institutions and to pass on ours to them. The Erasmus+ Program is an excellent channel for that. We consider it to be the most successful European Union programme within our reach, and we would like to keep being active participants of it. Partaking in the Erasmus+ Programme is crucial for our international campus’ further development.
The mobility of students, faculty and staff members has had a number of positive effects on our institution in the past and we would like to keep this in the future.
Our goal is to make our training structure and curriculum more compatible with our partner institutions, so that the 75% compatibility – that is necessary for the transferable ECTS credits students earn in foreign universities – can be achieved with as many courses as possible. In this respect supporting intensive programs that enhance international cooperation is a priority.