Our history
Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism
KVIK
FCHT
Our history
The legal predecessor of the faculty was the Pest Academy of Commerce, founded in 1857 by the Pest-Buda Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Although there were several attempts to upgrade the so-called upper commercial school (which in today's sense was a secondary educational institution) into a higher educational institution, these proved unsuccessful, but the establishment of the Academy was still a ground-breaking step in the region and even in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The building of the Academy was constructed in an eclectic style based on the plans of Győző Czigler, who also designed the building of the Széchenyi Spa. The Alkotmány Street site was appointed by the Capital as the construction site, and it still functions as the main building of our Faculty. In 1899, the Eastern Academy of Commerce also moved to the Alkotmány Street building, but organisationally and in terms of requirements it was separate from the Pest Academy of Commerce.
During the interwar period, the Academy offered various advanced vocational courses in addition to those of the upper commercial school. From 1939 the institution operated as a commercial secondary school, in 1962 the Higher-Level Vocational School of Commerce and Catering was established, which can be considered the forerunner of the present-day higher educational institution. The vocational school offered commercial and hospitality programmes, in full-time and correspondence forms, and later on tourism became an option for students majoring in hospitality. Summer and mid-year corporate internships played an important role in both majors.
The actual legal predecessor institution of BBU FCHT, the College of Commerce and Hospitality, was established in 1969 by a decree-law of the Presidential Council issued on 26 June 1969. The college had two faculties: the Faculty of Commerce and the Faculty of Hospitality, and accordingly, commercial and hospitality programmes were offered. From 1974, those interested in tourism could receive more detailed and complex tourism training than those taking part in the general hospitality programme in the framework of an optional course in tourism starting in the second year, however, the independent Tourism and Hotel Department was established only in 1990. In 1975, the Department of Pedagogy was established at the college, so vocational teachers were also trained as part of the teacher training courses.
In 1992, the name of the institution was changed to the College of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism, because by that time the Department of Tourism had grown into an independent professional unit within the college. Another change in the history of the institution took place in 2000 when Budapest Business University was formed as a result of the merger of the College of Finance and Accountancy, the College of International Management and Business and the College of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism. The Minister of Education awarded Budapest Business University the Higher Education Quality Award in 2010, and in recognition of the efforts made in the field of quality education, the institution received a university rank in 2016 and has been operating as a university of applied sciences ever since.
Our goal and mission are to create and maintain an institution having a Europe-wide network that is attractive to both domestic and foreign applicants and that plays a leading role in the teaching of economics and social sciences, and related fields. We offer short-cycle vocational programmes (FOSZK), bachelor's and master's programmes, as well as adult education programmes in both Hungarian and foreign languages. Thanks to the extensive network of contacts of the Budapest Business University, we have established cooperation with more than 200 teaching and research institutions in about 40 countries, and due to its embeddedness, the Faculty of Commerce, Hospitality and Tourism is also part of this cooperation network.
Candidates who apply to our Faculty have the option to choose from the following programmes: two courses in the short-cycle vocational programme - FOSZK (Tourism and Catering, Commerce and Marketing), two undergraduate majors in economics (Commerce and Marketing, Tourism and Catering), one bachelor of arts course in Community Coordination, and one in the field of pedagogy (Vocational Instruction in Business) and three majors in the Master’s Programme (Supply Chain Management, Tourism Management, Teacher of Economics). Every year, about one thousand five hundred new first-year students cross the gates of the alma mater, thus our average number of students is around five thousand three hundred, so we are among the largest institutions in Hungarian higher education in the field of economics. Nearly 150 professionally recognised instructors assist students in their studies.
Our Faculty has created a rich infrastructural background: our educational kitchens and restaurants, pubs, libraries, dormitories and College for Advanced Studies contribute to the acquisition o theoretical and practical knowledge by the students, not to mention that student and teacher community life has a long tradition at the Faculty. Trips, faculty days, the activities of the local members of the Student Union (HÖK) and AIESEC help create and nurture a “cosy” atmosphere for students and faculty alike.
All majors taught at the Faculty are characterised by practice orientation, the practical background of our Faculty is extremely strong. Our students get acquainted with the issues of the profession not only at the seminars but also at small, medium, and large enterprises, retail-, and hotel chains, where they can learn the practical skills of the profession in a n actual business environment and spend their compulsory internship at leading corporations in Hungary or abroad. We also support the educational process with a number of unique solutions: simulation exercises, educational restaurants, kitchenettes, laboratory exercises, independent student projects, etc. Our programmes are also offered in dual education form in cooperation with our significant professional partners and we plan to keep this form of education in the future too.
Student mobility is especially important to us. We have close relations with many foreign universities. We encourage our students to take part in shorter or longer part-time studies, summer internships abroad during their years at the university. Our dual degree agreements with four European universities offer attractive opportunities to our students. Most of the collaborations have been going on for several years and we hope they will continue in the future.
Budapest Business University is committed to the ideas of sustainable development, so it strives to form attitudes in all areas, but especially in its educational and research activities. In this spirit, BBU intends to institutionally support knowledge sharing by establishing the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Hospitality. The main objective of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Hospitality is to increase scientific knowledge in the field, to support sectoral cooperation as a knowledge-sharing platform, and to strengthen student awareness of the topic within the very broad field of sustainable development and help shape the attitudes of the society on the whole. In addition, several teachers and other colleagues from the Faculty are members of the University Sustainability Network, the declared goal of which is to enhance as much as possible the creation and maintenance of a greener, more liveable campus and environmental structure.