Dr Attila Borsos, Vice Dean in the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Transport Sciences, greeted participants and presenters and, having welcomed them to the two-day event, commented how pleased he was to see the number of Széchenyi colleagues interested in the subject as an indication of how important qualifications in teaching at higher education are now considered to be.  He further pointed out that the primary purpose of the following two days were to improve teaching skills and to discuss the next steps.

Dr Borsos then invited Dr Eszter Lukács, Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs, to open the event officially. Dr Lukács emphasized what a great honour it is to be able to host trainers from such a prestigious HEI as Delft University of Technology, which is ranked 52^nd overall in the QS World University Ranking and, in the subject rankings, stands in 4^th place for Civil and Structural Engineering.  The Dutch University particularly excels in a number of STEM subjects such as Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Studies, Engineering & Technology and Architecture. Located in Delft in the Netherlands, the University of Technology has one of the largest campuses in the world. Extending over 161 hectares, it features restaurants, parks, cycle paths, a botanical garden, a new media centre, a flight simulator and an aerodynamics and propulsion lab.

The present collaboration between Széchenyi and TU Delft is due to the efforts of Dr Borsos, who in academic year 2017/18 spent his sabbatical leave at TUD participating in the Transport and Planning Master Programme in Civil Engineering. Subsequently, having initiated an Erasmus agreement between the two institutes, Dr Borsos invited Ms Gordijn - coordinator of UTQ - and Ms Luising to share their expertise with University teaching staff from Széchenyi and to facilitate the pilot training courses.

Dr Lukács went on to give an introduction to Széchenyi István University, the current internationalisation process and the 22 English-taught programmes being launched for academic year 2019/20, also mentioning the in-service staff development initiatives in language and methodology which the University has made available to staff involved in the delivery of the new international programmes.

Before handing over to Dr Borsos for a detailed description of the programme, the Vice-Rector gave a warm welcome to the academic staff members from Széchenyi István University who were due to give presentations on the subject of our university’s initiatives in the area of methodology. Dr Judit Baranyiné Kóczy,  Vice Dean in the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Dr Tibor Dőry, Head of Department of Leadership and Organisational Communication and Mr Gábor Szabó from the University’s Centre of Foreign Languages.

The two guest trainers then described in detail the Teaching Lab at the Delft University of Technology, a special department housing an experimentation and testing environment available to all University teaching staff and offering a range of teaching and learning services and professional support. Among other services, trainers from the Teaching Lab are responsible for running the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) 

Following the opening and introduction to UTQ, the first Pilot Training was scheduled for five hours on Wednesday afternoon, involving the participation of 15 members of the teaching staff of Széchenyi István University. The second training for 12 teaching staff took place on Thursday 23^rd May.