Будапешт Техникалық және Экономикалық Университеті

University in Hungary

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem or in short Műegyetem), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered the world's oldest institute of technology which has university rank and structure. It was founded in 1782. More than 110 departments and institutes operate within the structure of eight faculties. About 1100 lecturers, 400 researchers and other degree holders and numerous invited lecturers and practising expert specialists participate in education and research at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Approximately 1381 of the university's 21,171 students are foreigners, coming from 50 countries. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics issues about 70% of Hungary's engineering degrees. 34 professors/researchers of the university are members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Training courses are provided in five languages: Hungarian, English, German, French and Russian. The ECTS credit system was introduced in 1995. This helps students to enroll in the student exchange program of the European Union, the Socrates (also known as Erasmus), and earn a double degree through the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network.

All Hungarians who pass the Hungarian secondary school matura with enough points are eligible for admission, as well as for anyone else in possession of an International Baccalaureate (again, with enough points). As with all Hungarian universities, a tuition fee of around $1000 has to be paid each semester for the Hungarian program. No extra fee is required for Hungarians for whom it is their first university, unless they spend more than 13 semesters there. The university offers extensive English language programs on all its faculties, at all levels of study (Preparatory Year, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy). The Tuition fees vary from €2000 €4500 per semester. 6% of all students come from different countries of the world representing over fifty different countries; the majority of the students in the English Program are from Azerbaijan, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Jordan in the greatest numbers, and students even from Malaysia, Ecuador and Saudi Arabia are among the graduates.

The university is located on the Buda side of the Danube between Szabadság Bridge and Petőfi Bridge and towards Rákóczi Bridge. This makes the university campus especially long and narrow: walking from one side of the university to the other can take as much as 20 minutes. The Inner City of Budapest (Pest) is just across the river, about 10 minutes' walk by either of the bridges.

The university has one sports club, the Műegyetemi AFC, which played in the first 1901 Hungarian League season. The university hosted the IFIUS 2008 World Interuniversity Games in October.

The National Technical Information Centre and Library at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME OMIKK) is the successor of two major libraries in Hungary.

The library of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (then Joseph Polytechnics) was formally founded in 1848 when Baron József Eötvös, Minister of Religion and Public Education donated a book in five volumes that become the first item in the inventory of the library. Since its foundation it moved with the university from Pest to the Buda Castle in 1854 and back to Pest in 1872. In 1882 it moved again, to the campus near the National Museum, now the campus of Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University. In 1909 the Library was moved to a separated cathedral like building in the new Campus of BME. The building was designed by Samu Pécz, professor of architecture at the university. The central Aula connects the spacious, wide reading room to the north, the multi floor storage facility to the west and the workrooms of library procedures to the south. The eastern facade is connected to the central building of the university with the 'Bridge of Sighs'. The architectural concept has been proven timeless. Later on the storage capacity was enlarged with the introduction of compact storage technology, and adding a large capacity underground storage facility under the garden of the Campus. Today a remote storage building near Budapest is also used. In the beginning the library was directed by university professors. The first full time director was appointed in 1936. In the early years the library served only professors. It was opened for students in 1869, and for the general public in 1884. In 1884 the first classification system of the library was elaborated and the first printed catalogue of the library was published by Vince Wartha, who was by the way professor of urban chemical technologies, dealing with construction materials, with gas production and water supply, and rector of university two times. In the following years extended editions of the printed catalogue were published and distributed to the departments and to other major libraries in the country. In 1936 the library introduced the index card system of catalogue. Transition to electronic cataloguing began in the 1980s, and the integrated library system was introduced in the 1990s. With the spreading of internet and widening the bandwidth the catalogue has become available from anywhere. The library collection was extended by acquisitions, and with donations of professors. There were two major additions by receiving the heritage of baron József Eötvös in 1872, and of Károly Hieronymi engineer and politician in 1912. During the Second World War both the building and the collection were damaged. Nevertheless, it continued its work in 1945, and the main reading room was reopened during the academic year of 1949–1950. Since 1952, increasing amount of the collection has been placed on open shelves for direct access of the readers. In the beginning only fiction, later on handbooks, and nowadays textbooks and current literature can be found on the shelves in the reading rooms. In 1953 the library started publishing serials (Methodical papers of the Central Library of Budapest Technical University, publications on history of science and engineering, Scientific Technical Bibliographies) and some other serials in the 1960s. Since the mid sixties the library takes part in the instruction of first year students with training on using the library and in teaching literature search skills. In 1991 the library opened the Study of Natural Sciences with mostly chemistry regarded literature open shelves. The library is the centre of the library network of the university, and the thematic library in mathematics and physics.

In 1883 Ágoston Trefort, minister of education opened the Technological Museum including a library consisting the “basic Hungarian and international literature dealing with industry”. In 1889 the library was moved and merged with the library of Public Polytechnics. In 1921 the Institute of Technological and Material Testing was established, merging two institutions. With the integration, the Library of Technological Institute was formed. From 1923 the library was intensively developed by the direction of Géza Káplány. In 1949 the Library of Technology was formally merged with the Technical Documentation Centre. Since then the library started establishing liaison libraries in the country. In 1952 the name changed to National Technical Library. In 1956 the Library was moved into a representative building near the National Museum. In 1982 with the introduction of electronic technologies and with the development of information exchange of cooperating libraries on multinational level the library took the name of National Technical Information Centre and Library. After several changes in the organization and supervision, in 2001, with the decision of the minister of education, most of the tasks, the staff and the whole collection of the National Technical Information Centre and Library were integrated into the Library of Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

After the integration of the two libraries the Main Reading Room were renovated and under it the Reading Room of Technical and Natural Sciences was created, three reading rooms in the central university building were formed, and a service tunnel connecting the library building with the underground storage facility and with the new reading rooms was constructed. In 2011, following the erection of new university buildings in the new southern (Lágymányos) campus, a new service point of BME OMIKK was opened in building “I”.

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ranked 250th in mechanical engineering by QS 2017 world ranking. It takes the 322nd place among the world's top 400 universities for engineering and technology, being the only university from Hungary that is listed in Quacquarelli Symonds ranking. Times Higher Education ranked it as 1001+ in its 2020 world university rankings.