Claire Legras, Ambassador of France to Budapest was the guest of Széchenyi István University on 30 April. The head of the delegation was familiarised with the activities of the University during her visit to our Innovation Park and also gave a lecture to students, titled “Defence challenges on the European stage: heritage and perspectives”. 

The Innovation Park in Győr inaugurated last year already hosted exhibitions, a foreign mission meeting and a lecture by a professor from Stanford University. At the end of April an esteemed guest visited the facility: Claire Legras, the French Ambassador to Budapest met with professors and students of the University.

Dr Eszter Lukács, Vice-President for International Affairs and Strategic Relations said that the University has more than 14 thousand students of which nearly a thousand are from around 80 different countries, and the institution is listed in six world rankings. She justified the choice of location for the programme by saying that, in addition to developing educational and scientific partnerships, the University also wants to work with French companies, and the Innovation Park in Győr is a centre for training, research and development and cooperation with companies.

The French Ambassador (third from left on the photo) was welcomed by Dr Eszter Lukács, Vice-President for International Affairs and Strategic Relations on behalf of the University. (Photo by: András Adorján)

Dr Tamás Kolossváry, Director of the Innovation Park presented the scientific work taking place here, which includes the coordination of the University’s design, graphic design and architecture programmes at the Design Campus, several research and development units, a business development unit and offices of corporate partners, such as Audi and Bosch. He emphasized that strengthening industrial ties helps the creation of start-up and spinoff ventures, increases research projects, patents and scientific publications, and stimulates innovation. Ambassador Claire Legras expressed her satisfaction regarding the Innovation Park and said that a number of French companies operate in Hungary, open to academic collaborations, particularly in electrical engineering, electronics and biotechnology. 

Dr Sándor Remsei, Dean of Faculty, introduced the available programmes at the Kautz Gyula Faculty of Business and Economics, with special emphasis on the English-taught bachelor’s and master’s programmes, as well as double degree programmes such as the MBA postgraduate programme with the University of Rhode Island in the United States. 

The faculty with the largest number of students of the University, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Informatics and Electrical Engineering, was also presented. Dr Ferenc Lilik, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Engineering, reported on the opportunities offered by the faculty and stressed that the most valuable thing for students is practical experience, which the institution can help them gain, thanks to professional partners such as the National Media and Telecommunications Authority or the University's Digital Development Centre.

Claire Legras, Ambassador of France to Budapest, spoke about the defence challenges in Europe. (Photo by: András Adorján)

At the end of her programme, the Ambassador gave a lecture in the conference hall of the Innovation Park to a large audience of interested students, including young French Erasmus+ participants. The diplomat, who previously worked at the French Ministry of Defence, spoke about the historical and current challenges on the European scene, highlighting the role of NATO and the difficulties of coordinating national defence policies. The Ambassador also spoke about strategic independence, development in the defence industry and European cohesion, and was happy to answer the students' questions on international relations.

The lecture on international relations was attended by international and Hungarian students (Photo: András Adorján)