A pandemic, an energy crisis, and a war-torn environment–it is rare for a university leader to face such a complex period. Yet stabilizing ELTE’s Faculty of Humanities and setting it on a path to growth: this is what Dean Dávid Bartus considers his greatest achievement of the past five years, and he would dedicate his next term to realizing a modern faculty of humanities that is consciously building itself and opening up to artificial intelligence and the needs of the labor market.
Dean Bartus, how would you assess the previous term of office? What achievements have been made over the past five years?
My previous term in office, from February 1, 2021, to January 31, 2026, fell during a very unusual period. It began during the pandemic–which is why I am the first, and hopefully the last, dean in the Faculty’s nearly 400-year history to be elected online during a pandemic–and this left its mark on the entire planning process as well as on the opportunities available. The first year of my term as dean was mainly about managing the situation caused by the pandemic, which tied up a significant portion of our resources.
After that, in 2022, we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief, but then came the energy crisis and the Ukraine war, constantly making our work more difficult. There were building closures due to energy conservation, and our long-term plans were superseded by the need to address short-term problems. This, of course, does not mean we had no plans; it just means we were not necessarily able to implement the ones we had devised before the dean’s term, but rather dynamic variations of them.
It is certainly a major achievement that we managed to get through this five-year period–amidst a pandemic, a war, and an energy crisis–in such a way that the Faculty not only survived but was able to thrive.
Could you give details of the progress made over that period?
At the beginning of 2019, we were still grappling with budget problems so severe that we were forced to implement mandatory retirements and layoffs. The fear that the budget balance would be completely disrupted was a daily reality. By now, we have reached a point where, in absolute terms, we are one of the most financially robust faculties of ELTE; though it must be noted that, due to the size of the Faculty of Humanities, our relative position does not necessarily reflect this.
Our operations are very stable; it does not even occur to us that we might have to lay off anyone for budgetary reasons; rather, we are moving towards development and expansion. It is also a major achievement that the Faculty has been able to maintain its autonomy and stability, not only financially but also in terms of education. We have not had to discontinue a single program, and our student enrollment has not decreased; in fact, interest in our Faculty continues to grow.
Over the past five years, we have also been able to participate in many international projects and grant competitions, we have built research partnerships, and the number of our international students has also steadily increased. So I believe that the key indicators that define a university or a faculty–such as financial stability, student enrollment, student satisfaction, the number of international students, academic partnerships, and projects–have all improved in recent years.
We have also strived to make the services available to teachers and students more transparent, on the one hand, and to improve them, on the other. Opportunities opened up during my time as Vice Dean for research under Dean Gábor Sonkoly that did not exist before, and in recent years we have been able to increase the resources allocated to this, both in terms of financial support for outstanding publications and various travel grants within the framework of the faculty’s research grants. In addition,
planning has recently begun on how to make the campus more livable.
Overall, therefore, I believe that, given the circumstances, we can consider this period to have been a resounding success for ELTE Faculty of Humanities.
You have been given a mandate for another five-year term. Now that the coronavirus pandemic is no longer complicating matters, is it possible to formulate more ambitious or long-term plans?
The second term is somewhat easier in that, following a successful five-year period, it is not advisable to plan for earth-shattering changes. We intend to continue along the path we have taken in terms of financial planning, education, internationalization, and academic life–processes that have proven to be effective over the past five years. At most, we will seek to further stabilize the Faculty’s operations through minor or major organizational restructuring.
Maintaining student enrollment and consolidating our financial position remain very important goals, and internationalization will also play a key role.
However, we do not merely wish to increase the number of international students, but also to raise the standard of services provided to them. This, of course, applies to Hungarian students as well. Our academic activities have been outstanding so far, and we intend to maintain this level and even further develop it. Even in the previous period, we sought to refresh our very traditional, long-standing, and highly valued educational portfolio by retaining the old elements while expanding it with new ones.
One such example was the introduction of the Master’s program in Intercultural Business Communication at the end of the last cycle, which is specifically aimed at those who do not intend to pursue careers in traditional humanities fields but are oriented toward the job market and wish to combine a humanities perspective with the benefits of business studies. We are currently considering what new programs we can launch in the coming years that will be much more open to the job market and equip students with much more modern skills.
We cannot ignore the issue of artificial intelligence, which is currently shaping all aspects of life. Preparatory work is already underway to determine how we can integrate AI into our educational programs, research, and even at the level of organizational units to the greatest extent possible. At first glance, this may seem far removed from humanities, but in reality, it is not.
Artificial intelligence has two major aspects. One is the engineering and IT side–that is, the hardware and software that must be built, maintained, and programmed. The other, which is very, very important and perhaps much closer to most of us, is the use of AI in education, research, and everyday life.
Regulation, ethical issues, and communication with artificial intelligence itself typically require humanities skills, since we always refer to generative artificial intelligence as a linguistic model;
therefore, how someone communicates with it matters a great deal.
This is where humanities play a very significant role. That is why we strive to integrate these fields into our lives as much as possible and move towards a truly 21st-century faculty of humanities.
We consider the continuation of the campus development project a top priority, and the first phase is already nearing completion. The redesign of the parking system will create significantly more green space and communal areas in Trefort Garden. According to our plans, starting September 1, we will welcome students, faculty, and staff to a much more livable campus.
We have also scheduled other investment plans for the coming years; for example, in addition to the multi-phase campus renovation, our short-term plans include the construction of a cafeteria similar in size to the previous one. We already have ideas for this, and we hope to see it happen next year. So we have plenty of goals, and on top of that, new ideas are always emerging–for example, we always come up with something new at the Monday faculty leadership meetings that kick off the week.
In which areas would you most like to strengthen the Faculty’s competitiveness?
That’s a tough question, because there are so many factors to consider. We’ve already discussed the issue of communal spaces, and I think it’s essential that our students spend a lot of time here on campus. There are universities and faculties where this isn’t a priority and they prefer distance learning. It fits best with our traditions for students to be here on campus, and to achieve this,
we need to create a campus that is as livable, as green, and as “student-friendly” as possible, both in the courtyard and inside the buildings.
H6TNY8LC community space has already moved to the ground floor of the Main Building in a revamped form, but we also want to redefine the role of libraries in the new student experience, because students use libraries very differently today than they did in the past. We’re trying to give these spaces slightly different functions and encourage students to return to the library so they feel at home there as well. We’re striving to maintain all student services at the same level as before, including our various support services such as the HELP program, SHÜTI, and access to the faculty psychologist. Perhaps most important is our very close collaboration with the Student Council, which has been exemplary over the past five years, and we are confident that it will be equally successful in the coming period.
The only personnel change in the faculty leadership was in the position of Vice Dean for General Affairs, though the role itself has been slightly restructured. What does the focus on teacher education entail in the new role of Vice Dean?
The new position was created because Vice Dean Ildikó Horn will be continuing her work as Vice Rector for Academic Affairs starting February 1, and we felt that the time had come to fill the general vice dean position with a more specialized role as well. Teacher education was, of course, represented in the previous leadership as well, since the Vice Dean for Educational Affairs had been handling this area up until now.
We felt it was time for teacher education to take on a prominent role, with a dedicated Vice Dean in the person of Gábor Vaderna.
We are the oldest, largest, and best teacher training institution in Hungary, and possibly in the wider region as well, which obviously comes with responsibility. We strive to maintain this role and meet the expectations that students have of us. Fortunately, our teacher education programs are very popular; many people apply for teacher education, and we would like to make their representation a little more visible. Despite his young age, Gábor Vaderna is considered a veteran in this field, as he is involved in every aspect of teacher education: as an instructor, he oversees administrative matters as the deputy director of the institute, and he has previously been very proactive in matters related to teacher and educator training here at the Faculty. I am very confident that, with this new structure, we will be able to represent this field even more effectively.
With so many daily tasks to handle, when do you find time to do anything other than your duties as dean?
That’s an interesting question, since becoming a dean doesn’t mean giving up one’s original position. As an associate professor and Head of Department in the Department of Classical Archaeology, I teach, conduct research, supervise thesis projects, work with doctoral students, serve on committees, oversee summer internships, and do exactly the same things as any other faculty member. Of course, all of this has taken a back seat to the deanship, which is essentially a 24/7 job.
When I’m not acting as dean, I try to do my “other job”–that is, archaeology. And when, by some miracle, I have a little free time, I try to exercise, because I have to stay physically fit alongside all the desk work. I usually go indoor climbing, running, and sometimes boxing, but lately, climbing has been my main focus. And when I’m done with all that, I try to play music in various bands and on different instruments–piano, drums, and guitar.
Photo: MTI/Csaba Krizsán
Is programming still one of your hobbies?
I tend to view programming as part of my job. In addition to archaeology, I studied programming extensively long before this, and I even have a vocational qualification in the field. I don’t really have time to pursue it in my free time, but a significant part of my work as a dean and as an archaeologist involves developing various IT solutions to address the problems that arise. In my work as dean, I have just finished reprogramming and completely refactoring the faculty’s scientometric evaluation system, and in the field of archaeology, there is always some excavation database development or other research project-related, generally database-based development that requires me to take on programming tasks. AI is already quite reliable in this area as well, because development has accelerated significantly since excellent supporting applications became available.