Mission Statement of Eötvös Loránd University

Eötvös Loránd University, the oldest continuously operating university in Hungary, was founded in the rural town of Nagyszombat in 1635 by Cardinal Péter Pázmány. It serves the interests of research and first-rate higher education rooted in European tradition.
The mission of ELTE is to preserve and increase national and universal culture and literacy, to cultivate scholarship, to pass on scientific knowledge, and to express and fulfil the substantive, long-term needs of Hungarian society and of Humanity as a whole.

ELTE aims at training accomplished intellectuals in possession of state-of-the-art knowledge, who:

• are able to recognize and analyse problems; to work out possible solutions and to take responsible decisions;
• are looking for consensus; and understand and respect different cultures;
• are aware of their individual responsibility for the future of their immediate environment as well as the future of Hungary, Europe and the whole of Humanity;
• represent the values of professionalism, solidarity and humanity;
• respect general ethical principles as well as human dignity, and respect the free expression of ideas.

In order to achieve all these goals, in accordance with its nearly four-century-long traditions, ELTE aims at:

• offering students valuable, state-of-the-art knowledge and professional perspectives as well as competitive degrees, through the joint efforts of the members of the university;
• maintaining high standards in master’s and doctoral degree programmes as well, prioritising the postgraduate courses in its educational structure; expanding the provision of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programmes, courses available in foreign languages and joint programmes with leading foreign institutes of higher education;
• being a world-class competitive research team in the European field, able to respond to complex societal challenges; carrying out research, development and innovative activities focusing on social and technological problems to be solved;
• creating effective talent management; as a research university, increasing the proportion of highly qualified and productive teachers/researchers and creating an attractive educational and research environment for them;
• creating value-based and effective relationships with its immediate and wider environment, and becoming one of the leading university centres in the Central European region. 

Based on the conviction that high-quality university teaching is inconceivable without high-quality research, ELTE is committed to achieving excellence on both sides of the traditional universitas concept: the creative community of educators and students (universitas magistrorum et discipulorum) and the ideal of the university of science (universitas scientiarum).

The achievement of these objectives is supported by the leadership of the university, as well as by the teachers, researchers, students and the entire community of ELTE.