A few words about Faculty of Wood Engineering and Creative Industries

"GOOD LUCK!"

With our traditional greeting of Selmec, I welcome dear readers with joy and pride. With joy and pride, because we are proud of our faculty’s past, present and hopefully future.

The faculty has come a long way from the origins of traditions of Selmecbánya (Banská Štiavnica) established in 1735, through the beginning of forestry engineering training in 1957, to the establishment of the Faculty of Wood Sciences and the Sopron University of Forestry and Wood Sciences in 1962. Today, the former University of Sopron with two faculties is one of the most important university centres in the Western Hungary region. As part of the University of Sopron, the Faculty of Wood Engineering and Creative Industries (formerly known as Simonyi Karoly Faculty of Engineering, Wood Sciences and Applied Arts) has undergone many changes. In response to current challenges, the still nationally unique timber industry engineering training was followed by the beginning of timber industry plant engineering training. Since the mid-1980s to our days, paper industry, teacher of engineering, light industry, different arts and business information technology trainings have appeared following each other. Finally, in the last five years, we supported the needs of the country and the narrower region by starting industrial design engineering and mechatronics engineering trainings.

The faculty focuses on three major areas: technical, art and IT education. In the technical field, our timber industry engineering, mechatronics engineering, architect, light industrial engineering, industrial design engineering trainings as well as engineering management BSc and MSc trainings have been accredited. In the field of art, there are BSc and MSc trainings in architecture, design and graphic design, and we can also welcome students in our Business Information Technology FOKSZ (Higher Education Vocational Training), BSc and MSc programmes.

Our faculty has traditionally strong industrial and international relations. Approximately half of its annual revenues come from domestic and international tenders and external orders. The Faculty maintains close relationship with 35 foreign universities; this not only provides a professional and scientific background for teachers but also offers opportunities for students to study abroad. The József Cziráki Doctoral School of Wood Sciences and Technologies is well connected to our innovation activities and international relations: it not only focuses on
the technical world in the narrower sense, but also provides opportunity for the cultivation of related IT and management sciences.

Empowered by our past and present, we are working hard to make our students as successful as possible after their graduation. We consider creative thinking to be of special importance, which is supported by the organization of independent laboratories where students, by solving increasing tasks individually or in small groups, not only receive the knowledge given by the teachers, but also apply them creatively. We also consider it important that the three main training areas of the faculty do not simply coexist, but the technical, artistic and IT worlds and thoughts meet in a specific way in the lives of students. Nationally unique opportunity of our educational and research services is that fields in close synergy building on each other appear in one faculty. We organize our trainings in a way that our students can find the multidisciplinary skills themselves, gain experience by cooperating with students of other fields, and thus prepare for the solution of future tasks requiring broad thinking.

In recent years, buildings housing the main training areas of the faculty have been renovated. In addition to a high-quality infrastructure, the educational team with a large number of qualified, internationally recognized teachers is nationwide highly appreciated. In 2012, we opened the Natural Resources Research Centre (NRRC), which provides the widest opportunities in Central Europe in the field of research and practical training of students mainly by its faculty-related laboratories, workshops and renewed Woodshop with world-class state-of-art facilities.

Relying on traditions, the faculty constantly develops its way by responding dynamically to the challenges of every age.

Prof. Dr. Magoss Endre
Dean