Developments Worth Billions at University of Debrecen17 May 2010
The New Hungary Development Plan paves the way for the most significant development of higher education institutions operating in rural areas ever implemented over the past 20 years by launching infrastructural developments and investments amounting to a total of 55.5 billion HUF in value in 13 higher education institutions around the country. The University of Debrecen has been granted more than 5 billion HUF to carry out developments, the foundation stone of which investment has just been laid.
The aim of the project to be implemented in Debrecen relates to developing infrastructures used in natural sciences and technology education at the University of Debrecen by expanding physical and technological infrastructures at existing departments, as well as by renewing the outdated building used. Beyond developing the infrastructure of theoretical education, the aim of this project equally involves increasing the capacity of practical education and carrying out technological developments. The directors of the university envisage reaching these goals in a way that both students and staff of all three centres managing financial resources relatively independently perceive the outcomes of this development.
The first phase of construction of the Inter-regional Centre for Technological and Agricultural Consultancy and Training (MAG House), i.e., the first phase of development and reconstruction of the so-called Theoretical Quadrangle, and the construction of a new building housing the Faculty of Informatics will be carried out within the framework of a development to be implemented from EU funding amounting to 4.8 billion HUF. Beyond these developments, infrastructural developments tying in with courses offered in electrical and materials engineering, i.e., the renewal of laboratories along Bem Square, as well as infrastructural and info-communication developments tying in with pharmaceutical and biological engineering courses will also be carried out.
Earlier on, 19 institutions were approved funding amounting to 13.7 billion HUF within the framework of the first National Development Plan implemented over the 2004-2006 period for establishing modern educational conditions, as an outcome of which infrastructural developments were implemented on an area of over 60,000 square metres at these institutions, hence improving educational and research conditions for some 110,000 students. Therefore, over the 2004-2008 period, nearly 70 billion HUF was made available for upgrading the infrastructure of higher education institutions with the help of EU funding.