Professor Anikó Zsolnai will be the new dean of ELTE PPK

All former and current leaders of the faculty attended the dean election meeting of the Faculty Council: academician György Hunyady, the founding dean of the PPK, and his successor, Professor Emeritus Attila Oláh, were also present. The Rector of Eötvös Loránd University, Dr. academician László Borhy also honoured the meeting with his presence. He thanked the resigning dean, Zsolt Demetrovics’s work and in his greeting to Anikó Zsolnai he wished success in representing the faculty and further strengthening collaborations within the university.

"You have to be authentic," said Anikó Zsolnai, formulating her leadership philosophy on our question, stressing that she devotes a key role in cooperation both within the faculty and within university and inter-faculty relations. The elected dean emphasised that she intended to implement the effective representation of the interests of the faculty in cooperation with the lecturers of PPK, the Student Union and the staff of the faculty.

After the dean election meeting, we talked with the resigning dean Zsolt Demetrovics and the elected dean Anikó Zsolnai:

Zsolt Demetrovics: The faculty has been on a good track since its foundation, the values represented by my predecessors, György Hunyady and Attila Oláh, also determined my work as a dean, and I am sure that this unified approach will be the basis of Anikó Zsolnai's work. An important element of this common knowledge across cycles is that we see the faculty as a community of researchers, teaching and research support staff and students being able to offer a more diverse, expanding and high-quality range of teaching and research together. I feel that we have a kind of common, cultural knowledge of what it means, what principles PPK operates along, and this common approach permeates the whole faculty. It helps a lot that no matter in what position, but from teaching assistants to professors, from first-year students to the leaders of the Student Union, from coordinators to secretariats, we all have a unified mindset about PPK.

Anikó Zsolnai: In my programme, I focus on the field of the continuous enforcement of quality principles, which is still fundamental at PPK, as it is unavoidable in both our Hungarian and international study programmes and research to maintain and further strengthen excellence by international standards. In this regard, it is also essential that the faculty continues to place great emphasis on educating and retaining the new researcher generation.

Zsolt Demetrovics: I consider it very important that we can continuously improve, the fact that we can develop new study programmes that reflect the progress of science and integrate new research results. With these, we are continually expanding PPK's study programme offer in all the fields represented by the faculty, such as in the fields of psychology, pedagogy and sports science. And it is also crucial that regarding this ambition of ours we can cooperate effectively with other units of Eötvös Loránd University. Just a few examples: we are launching a BSc in Human Resources with a degree in Economics. We are also training sports managers on a master level (both in very close cooperation with GTI and TÁTK), or to introduce an example of Anikó's narrower field of study, we started a new specialisation, namely the digital pedagogical assistant specialisation, within the Education BA study programme. In addition, our geographical horizon has expanded significantly as well: it seems that within a few years, PPK will become a leading research location in the fields it represents in Western Hungary. We have significantly expanded our student body on the campus in Szombathely, and we also offer undergraduate and graduate study programmes based on our local teaching staff. I think the improvement of the infrastructural situation is very important, as well as our renovation programme, although we still face huge problems here. Finally, I make no secret of it, that as a psychologist, I am proud that ELTE PPK’s psychology study programme has been listed the highest for years, not only in Hungary but also regionally: we have been in the top 5 percent of such study programmes in the world, which means we are in the TOP 300 according to international rankings.

Zsolnai Anikó: As a priority, I will deal with the completion of the development of the cadastral system of the faculty's teaching and research activities, which has already begun, and also with the introduction of multi-faceted evaluation at a system level. This task, of course, gives the faculty leadership work across dean cycles. I also consider it essential to support the faculty's ability to develop in the future continuously. A necessary element of this is the innovation activity, which has always played an important role in the life of the faculty. I think we can be proud, for example, of how the faculty has organized distance education in a conscious and supportive way, including a mentoring network and life counselling to help teachers' activities in the new circumstances. Finally, I consider the effective representation of the faculty to be a priority. I will emphasize the development of interdisciplinary collaborations between faculties that have already started, the development of joint training with other faculties, and the encouragement of various multidisciplinary research projects. But I also consider the third mission activity of the faculty, such as the program of the University of the Third Age, to be preserved and developed.

Zsolnai Anikó: From now on, we will work together with Dean Zsolt Demetrovics. We will have a lot of meetings where we will review the affairs of the faculty. I think that working together will help me to be able to perform a coordinating leadership role, which is close to my nature, after taking over the position of dean of the faculty.

Demetrovics Zsolt: Over the next two months, our top priority will be ensuring continuity. And although a new dean will take over the management of the faculty from February, I do not want to draw a sharp line: Anikó can, of course, count on me in the future, just as I could rely on the knowledge and expertise of my predecessors in my work. Besides, as a lecturer and researcher, I will continue to be present in the life of the faculty, and I will help where I am needed.

Demetrovics Zsolt: Although Rogers addressed the issue in the context of psychotherapy and not leadership, I think congruence may also be one of the most critical factors in dean work..

Zsolnai Anikó: We are moving forward on the path set by the former deans, and in this, I look forward to the collaboration of teachers, researchers, students, and staff.