The Carpathian Basin Online Education Centre of Óbuda University is successful and will continue to receive the support of the Hungarian government, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said on Friday at Óbuda University.

The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that it is equally important for both the individual and the whole nation that students can learn in their mother tongue. Students can ‘conceive’ things in Hungarian that they may not be able to do to the same extent in another language, he explained.

The Importance of the Mother Tongue

He emphasised that for the whole nation, the Hungarian language is the ‘last stronghold’, so it is crucial that we preserve our mother tongue. At the same time, it is of paramount importance for the unity and unification of the nation that in addition to the common language, Hungarian technical language also preserves its unity, and science is practised at an all-Hungarian level, not just within the borders of the country, he added.

The deputy prime minister also mentioned that, due to historical necessity, the Hungarian people are a world nation. Because of Trianon, lost wars, dictatorships, and suppressed revolutions, a significant portion of the Hungarian nation lives outside the state borders, and the Hungarian nation and the Hungarian state borders do not coincide. The Hungarian nation can only be preserved if the Hungarian identity of the detached national parts can also be sustained, he emphasised.

This is only possible if the Hungarian nation is preserved ‘in one Hungarian language,’ which includes practicing scientific fields based on a unified Hungarian technical language. This is only possible if we consider the Hungarian language as one unified map, and online education makes this possible, the deputy prime minister underscored.

Zsolt Semjén highlighted that the centre provides an opportunity for Hungarians living abroad to deepen their knowledge in the appropriate technical language, preserve it, and develop it. The online education centre helps the preservation of the Hungarian nation and represents the unification of the Hungarian nation in the intellectual, linguistic, and scientific fields, he summed up, and thanked Óbuda University for its service in preserving and unifying the nation.

The Online Education Centre

Rector of Óbuda University Levente Kovács recalled that the Carpathian Basin Online Education Centre was launched in 2014, in a unique way in Central Europe. The programme strengthens the sense of belonging and togetherness in institutions and communities beyond the borders, the rector highlighted. So far, 22 Hungarian and 14 higher education institutions located outside Hungary’s borders have joined the programme the course of which are free of charge. Tens of thousands of students have already availed themselves of this opportunity, Levente Kovács noted. The centre offers high-level Hungarian-language courses that meet accreditation requirements based on international agreements.

Thanks to a government grant, nearly 2.2 billion forints will be spent on developing close to 300 courses over the next four years, and the platform will also have English-language access.