The wind of change

Fortunately, we are able to continue the historical overview of the University of Pannonia. This time the focus is on some important changes at the beginning, namely the first 5 decades of our university.

As you may already know, the University of Pannonia was founded in 1949 as a faculty of the Technical University of Budapest. Later on, in 1951 the situation changed and the institution became an independent university under the name of Veszprém University of Chemical Engineering. Surprisingly, most of the local residents were sceptical towards the university and the lecturers, though later it became a somewhat better. In spite of the circumstances, the total local acceptance of the university was achieved only in 1956 when the university supported the revolutionary events.

Did you know?

• During the revolution of 1956, the majority of the university students were deported to the Soviet Union. When they had the opportunity to return to Veszprém, the inhabitants of the city greeted them with ovation and donated them fruits, food, cigarettes, and other things.
  
• During its first years, the university had only 16 lecturers in total; in fact, all of them were young males. They were working incredibly hard and concentrated on organization and education rather than carrying out research. 
• “Egyetemünk”, the official newspaper of the University of Pannonia was founded in 1956 but after the revolution it was banned for 3 years. Apart from those 3 years, it has been issued continuously for almost 60 years. 
• During the 1980’s, there was a dilemma whether to close the whole university or convert it into an academy because of its unprofitable operation. 
• Before the political change of the 1990’s, there wasn’t much chance to open new departments. However, some years later new directions and possibilities emerged and the name of our institution became University of Veszprém. Furthermore, the Faculty of Teacher Training and the Faculty of Engineering were founded. 
• Further expansion took place in 2000, when the university integrated the Georgikon Faculty of Agriculture and the off-site campus in Nagykanizsa started to operate. 
• In 2003, two new faculties were added, namely the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Information Technology. Thanks to these improvements, the University of Pannonia became a 5-faculty institution and reached its current form.

(Fotók: PE archív)