I believe that organisational trust is the foundation of everything
What motivated you to apply for the position?
I have been working at PPK since October 2003, so practically since its foundation. From the very first moment I was charmed by the dynamic and youthful atmosphere of the faculty. I could also feel this dynamism among my colleagues, which strengthened my feeling that together we could work effectively towards common goals.
Over the past 20 years, I have held positions that were not only about teaching and researching but also about optimising the functioning of the faculty. Increasingly, I have gained insight into strategic issues and interacted with colleagues from different institutes in a way that has helped me to understand the deeper context in which the faculty operates. For all these reasons, I felt that as Vice-Dean I could contribute to ensuring that the faculty remains a vibrant, multicultural and value-oriented environment.
How do you see the current situation of PPK in terms of education? What are the strengths of the faculty?
I really like the fact that at PPK the focus is on the human. We support and develop the human and the person in many ways through diverse study programmes: we pay attention to their mental and physical health, and we develop those competences that are important for the labour market and the fulfilment of their social roles. This also means paying attention to the well-being of students and to ensuring that, upon leaving the university environment, they have the right professional orientation and retain their self-identity.
What main policies and objectives have you set for the development of education?
I would like to build on the goals of the previous Vice-Deans, specifically on maintaining quality. My priority is to ensure that the faculty can continue to be proud of the excellent, high-quality education it offers. An important objective is to make our programmes attractive, as well as to maintain our position at a national level and improve our position at a regional level in terms of student quality and quantity.
It is essential that students see the meaning and benefits of their studies more clearly.
For this reason, such training portfolios and contents should be created that clearly show how their acquired skills relate to their future careers and roles. This, in turn, requires us to strengthen our professional collaborations with the practical spheres by providing a variety of quality internship and practice opportunities, expanding our range of partners and learning from each other.
In your application, you stated that your goal was “to transform the faculty into an active member of the international academic community.” What does this mean?
We currently have students from more than 80 countries, which creates an extremely diverse cultural environment – in this context, students are already part of the international circulation. On the other hand, our lecturers and researchers are actively involved in international collaborations and research projects, in which students can also be indirectly included.
I think it is essential that anyone who comes to study here feels that they are part of a high-quality international education. To achieve this,
we want to strengthen the international character of the faculty.
Fortunately, we already have the tools for that, such as the Erasmus mobility programme, which we encourage students to take advantage of and we give them further support to ensure that they complete their studies in time.
In the light of these objectives, does the faculty plan to restructure its training portfolio?
I come from the Institute of Psychology where our curriculum has always been designed to fit in well with international trends, and as I have reviewed the other training programmes offered by the faculty, our colleagues in other institutes have also acted with such considerations in mind. Both in terms of subject content and structure we are aligned with the curricula of many foreign institutions.
In line with this approach, for instance, we will launch an English-language psychology programme for Hungarian students from autumn 2025, in parallel to our psychology programme for foreign students. This is practically an extension of our portfolio, responding also to the needs of Hungarian students who have often indicated that they would like to take more English-language courses and acquire a deeper knowledge of English terminology and jargon.
Furthermore, we have plans for postgraduate training programmes as well,
as these programmes are particularly responsive to market needs. Since they are highly practice-oriented, our colleagues can see exactly what kind of professionals are needed. That’s why we have such a wide range of training programmes in this field.
In addition, a main objective of ours is to ensure that the faculty is able to demonstrate its professional, pedagogical and methodological competence in the fields of teacher training and postgraduate teacher training. We are currently working to ensure that ELTE remains a leading player in both teacher training and postgraduate teacher training.
What are the answers to the challenges of the labour market in terms of bachelor’s and master’s programmes, and how can students’ chances of finding a job be increased?
We are constantly responding to these needs; for example, a recent addition is that we are incorporating artificial intelligence skills development into our training programmes. To conform to a new government decree, we will include an AI competency course in all our curricula from autumn 2025, and we are constantly developing subjects and topics to help our students keep pace with the changes in the work environment. PPK has already been a pioneer in this field, since two years ago we were the first at ELTE to develop a guide on the ethical and competent use of AI-based tools, and we are also involved in ELTE-wide projects reflecting on aspects of the role of AI in education and research, which has resulted in trainings and educational contents for both teachers and students.
We are also in the process of adapting some of our training programmes to better align them with international trends and labour market expectations. From autumn 2026, in place of the traditional 90-minute frontal lectures,
we would like to introduce more individual, pair, small group and large group, synchronous and asynchronous teaching formats
to engage students more actively into the learning process. Our aim is to gather and systemise existing good practices with a view to developing a well-designed, project-oriented training model and practice which retains the strengths and the high quality of the one we currently have.
Can a local, faculty-based strategy address challenges such as the decrease in government-funded spots or underfunding?
Even if we can’t change external factors, I think the job of the faculties is to focus on maintaining quality. This refers not only to the content of the training programmes but also to caring for the well-being of the teachers.
One of the most important things we need to do is to provide the right working conditions;
foster a culture of listening to each other; actively participate in creating creative, open, diverse and supportive communities; create those individual, social and environmental conditions that will make sure that we can retain teachers for the long term.
We always try to respond to problems in a solution-oriented way. If, for example, we are losing space because of decreasing government-funded places, we think in new directions: What new programmes can we launch? How can we attract more Hungarian and foreign students? What new specialised trainings can we offer? This kind of adaptation and continuous search for solutions will enable the faculty to successfully navigate the current challenges.
What tools can be used to promote student satisfaction?
PPK has an especially strong partnership between students and the institution. If you look at the possibilities for students to express their opinions, you will be hard-pressed to find many other places that offer the same platform as us: the Student Union can represent the students’ opinions courageously, openly and firmly. An important element of our community is that
the faculty leadership does not work behind closed doors but initiates dialogue.
I very much hope that our sincere interest in our students has resulted in their satisfaction. We would like to continue to implement changes only together, in cooperation, with the youthful drive and dynamism that the faculty possesses in general and that is constantly being fuelled by the students themselves.
Students are important references when we reflect on our own work. That is why we involve them as much as possible in all our initiatives and take seriously the impulses and feedback we receive from them, in order to shape the programmes and the conditions of the faculty to their satisfaction. And we hope that they really feel that way.
As a psychologist specialising in organisation, leadership development and work psychology, how would you define your own leadership style in the role of the Vice-Dean for Education?
Basically, I consider myself to be a leader that creates structure, but I am also flexible.
If I experience a problem in a particular operation or function, I am open to improvement, adapting to the constantly changing challenges. Furthermore, as a leader, I attach great importance to engaging in dialogue not only with those who are currently affected by an issue, but, following a more expansive perspective, I also like gathering the views of those who may be indirectly related to an issue. For me, this is a kind of transcendence, an opportunity for a bird’s eye view, for a change of perspective.
I like to spend a lot of time with students, I am close to young people and their dynamism inspires me. I believe that dialogue based on mutual respect allows students to really be the centre of attention; my relationship with them is the most important to me.
How do you imagine the cooperation with the Registrar’s Office?
For me, working and thinking together with my colleagues in the Registrar’s Office is like the relationship between the lungs and breathing – I wouldn’t be able to do my job effectively without them. They are my primary partners in terms of collegiality, and I pay a lot of attention to that. On the one hand, I thank them for their support, and on the other hand, I will look for ways to make them feel that I can be a supportive partner for them as well.
What organisational development opportunities do you see at PPK?
One of the biggest challenges is that the faculty is located in different buildings, and these buildings are relatively far away from each other. It is crucial to build relationships that make colleagues feel part of the PPK community, physical distance notwithstanding. Part of this is to make sure that, for example, a student studying in ESI (Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences) is aware that there are students studying psychology or pedagogy or other subjects. Our job is to offer community events and meetings that provide an opportunity for networking.
Another important area for improvement is to speed up decision-making processes, but this is not just a faculty-level issue. To me, maintaining a decentralised operation seems much more efficient and effective. However,
within the faculty we can still strive for a flatter organisational and partnership structure,
whether it is about transparency, easy and clear communication, approachability and accessibility, or responsiveness and support. My research topic is organisational trust: it is the foundation of everything and it is this atmosphere of trust that I want to foster in my leadership.
As someone specialising in organisational and leadership development, I would also emphasise honest listening, because the world is moving too fast and there is a very big burden on every employee. As a final thought, I would like to say that I would be very happy if my colleagues could feel the meaning of their work in the years to come and if they could play a decisive role in this. I hope that I will retain the trust of the faculty during the next few years.