Rector’s welcome
As the rector of the Archiepiscopal College of Veszprém, I warmly welcome you to the official website of our institution!
About us – our past
Our College considers the studium generale – functioning until 1276 – as its spiritual predecessor. The studium generale was established in the seat of the first bishopric of the country. The legal predecessor of the College was the Theological Seminary founded by Bishop János Volkra on 26 October 1711. The Seminary educated the seminarists only for 10 years until 1721; it was Bishop Márton Padányi Bíró who restored the education after a quarter of a century interval in 1745. Except for short breaks during the world wars, the re-opened Seminary hosted its students undisturbed until March 1952, when the one-party state closed it by force.
After almost 40 years of forced break József Szendi, the Archbishop of Veszprém re-established the Archiepiscopal Theological College of Veszprém in 1991 by launching the Theology and the Teacher of Religious Education programmes. From 1993 to 2001, the College had Music-Church Music programme, and in 1995, the Social Work programme was launched. Since 2013, the College has been providing postgraduate specialist training programmes – with a continuously widening range of subject areas – for pedagogists and social workers.
The College’s educational and scientific activity – our present
The College is authorized to launch programmes in the fields of religious life, teacher training, humanities, economics and social sciences.
Since September 2020, the Theology programme has been deactivated. Currently, the College offers the Teacher of Religious Education undivided MA and the Social Work BA programmes. (The Catechetics BA programme has been temporarily suspended.)
Our scientific endeavours go beyond the conventional higher education framework. In the autumn of 2021, the College founded a Workshop on Talent Pedagogy. In November 2022, the Ecumenical Religious Education Workshop was established in order to create a focal point and a kind of centre for the international and local best practices of talent management and religious education in Veszprém.
Based on the cooperation agreement between our College and the University of Pannonia located in Veszprém, the Teacher of Religious Education programme is not just a single degree training but can be combined with other teacher training programmes as well.
Besides broadening the spectrum of the degree programmes on offer, we place great emphasis on organizing further training programmes for Christian and worldly intellectuals, for professional graduates of pedagogy, social studies or for those from the fields of other social sciences and humanities.
Owing to the systematic development of our postgraduate programmes initiated in 2013, we can offer 10 programmes in teacher education, 3 programmes in the field of religious education and 3 more in the field of social sciences for professional graduates.
In 2020, we established our major plans for curriculum and degree programme development. By 2026, new programmes are planned to be launched in the fields of humanities and social sciences, with such an up-to date training content that can be useful not only in the educational, social and service provider systems of the Church, but in the wider labour market as well.
In order for our College to act as a catalyst in the Archdiocese of Veszprém and in the national economy, it should step out into society by expanding the range of its – educational and scientific – activities with a service profile. For this purpose, the Pastoral Institute, the Mental Health and Psychology Centre, and the Talent Nurture Centre were founded, all of which became operational in the autumn of 2022.
Our Credo and our objectives
Our faith, mission and social responsibility spring from the knowledge, experience and examples accumulated in the Scriptures, in Holy Tradition, and in the teachings of the Church over millennia.
We are dedicated to ensuring quality and advanced knowledge transfer, deepening scientific principles, and preserving academic freedom.
Our priorities involve high-level organization of research work and research development, and last but not least continuous contact with the educational and economic actors of the area.
By way of implementing the guidelines set in 2020, we are committed to achieve these goals through more intensive social engagement, through better-organized involvement in the missionary activity of the Church and through more active participation in local community life.
By training professionals for public education and social systems, the College joins in preserving universal and national cultural values and in maintaining social and economic stability.
Our potential applicants
If you think that Christian culture, charitable approach, Christian teaching principles and traditions are not only community values but also important, profitable investments necessary for character building and personal prosperity: we have (prepared) a place for you!
