The legal predecessor of BBU, the Pest Academy of Commerce, was founded in 1857 in response to the professional challenges of the age. Since then, it has undergone many transformations.
The Budapest Business School, which was awarded the Higher Education Quality Award in 2010, was established on January 1, 2000, by merging three previously successful colleges: the College of International Management and Business, located in a former Soviet barracks in Mátyásföld, and the College of Finance and Accountancy, always in Zugló, and from the College of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism. In the latter faculty, education still takes place at the original location, downtown on Alkotmány Street, in the building of the Pest Academy of Commerce, which was established in 1857, after Paris, as the second commercial college in Europe in Budapest.
Since January 1, 2016, we have been operating under the name of the Budapest Business School - University of Applied Sciences. In August, 2023, we have changed our name to Budapest Business University. The BBU headquarters is also located in a classic building on Markó Street in the 5th district, which was originally built as a grammar school and has always served an educational purpose.
We are proud of our traditions, our more than 160-year professional past, and we also commemorated the date of our establishment in our coat of arms.
Three faculties of our university currently operate in Budapest: the Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism (FCHT), the Faculty of International Management and Business (FIMB), and the Faculty of Finance and Accountancy (FFA).
By winning the title of University of Applied Sciences, BBS was given a non-returnable opportunity that all participants in our institution were able to take advantage of. The period since then has been of paramount importance in the life of our university, as in addition to cultivating our traditions, we have achieved significant results through our modern, innovative spirit, which has defined our strategic direction, decisions and daily operations operator.
In 2016
- in order to strengthen our research role, we started to develop the scientific structure and our Institution Development Plan, which is a strategic document of our operation.
In 2017
- we established the Budapest Lab Entrepreneurship Centre, the first centre of excellence of BBS, followed by 3 more centres of excellence: The Centre of Excellence in the Future of Higher Education Centre, the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Hospitality, the Centre of Excellence in Cyber Economy.
- We have begun implementing a comprehensive curriculum reform to raise our practice orientation and international compatibility to a higher level.
- We have joined the international network of PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education), as a member of which our institution is committed to responsible business education. At the same time, we institutionalised our sustainability efforts, and the Sustainability Council and The Sustainability Network consisting of volunteers of the internal community was established.
- We were the first in Hungary to receive international accreditation from the professional organization Network of International Business Schools, one of the world's leading communities of economic higher education institutions.
In 2018
- our renewed Code of Ethics has entered into force, which has been prepared in a unique way in Hungarian higher education with the involvement of all internal stakeholders.
- We have implemented a conscious transformation of the academic organization, thus creating a more transparent and efficient organizational structure.
- Our university is on the podium in the national enrolment ranking, ranking 3rd with 6,396 students.
- In December, we successfully accredited the BBS Doctoral School of Entrepreneurship and Business, which fills a gap in that it pays special attention to research and education on business and management issues in small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, we have started the AACSB accreditation process, which is the best-known international accreditation system for business schools.
In 2019
- we maintained our market leadership in business programmes and recruited 6 per cent more students than the previous year.
In 2020
- our Faculty of Finance and Accountancy was on top in the Hungarian University popularity list, and our other two faculties, the Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism, and the Faculty of International Management and Business, were also among the top 10 faculties in Hungary.
Our sustainability efforts, internationalization processes, business-friendly approach and developments to create an experiential learning environment plays a major role in the lives of all our university citizens in order to participate effectively in the process of knowledge transfer and acquisition.