The University of Pécs


Since King Louis the Great founded the predecessor of this institution in 1367 as one the first universities in Central Europe, there have been many changes: faculties moved back and forth, legendary professors were followed by their hard-working students in professorship. The University of Pécs is the first university in Hungary.

Today, this University is one of the largest institutions of higher education in Hungary with the widest spectrum of teaching and research activities. We are proud of the achievements of our professors and scientists, furthermore, we are determined to share this knowledge with our students and the wider public. Our University represents and accepts as its own a great tradition of 650 years, while at the same time it also plays an active role in the task of institutionalizing new knowledge that is aimed both at the present and the future.

The Faculty of Health Sciences is one of the youngest faculties of our University where teaching began in 1990. The Faculty of Health Sciences was established as a part of the Medical University of Pécs by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare in 1989 in order to offer courses for health care specialists leading up to the BSc degree. Today, after the integration process leading to the University of Pécs, the Faculty of Health Sciences is an independent organizational unit among the ten faculties of the University. Students can choose from eight types of specialisation. Post-graduate courses are also offered by the Faculty and it is also actively engaged in the in-service programmes given to various actors of health services. The up-to-date education technology installed at the faculty contributes to the high quality of both theoretical and practical education. Students are strongly encouraged to take part in scientific activities as well. Since 1 March 2006 the institute is functioning as a University Faculty by the name of Faculty of Health Sciences. Graduates of the Faculty of Health Sciences have a level of competence in their own field that is fully compatible with EU standards. They are fully capable to work as competent team members in areas of health care provision and social care systems. In the EU, there are seven automatically acknowledged special fields. This Faculty is one of the youngest and most dynamically developing institutes of the University, functioning as part of the University of Pécs since 1 January 2000. The Faculty has campuses in Pécs, Kaposvár, Szombathely and Zalaegerszeg where good co-operation has been established with the local teaching hospitals and social institutions.


Nurse education at the Institute of Nursing Sciences, Basic Health Sciences and Health Visiting

Nurses‘ role is getting more and more appriciated due to the use of advanced technologies and lack of doctors. In most EU countries secondary school nursing trainings are eliminated and there is only tertiary education because nurses with BSc / MSc degree perform a lot of activities which was previously done only by doctors (eg. patient examination, ordering medications, therapeutic interventions). The Institute has responsibility in nursing BSc, MSc, postgraduate specialist training courses, activities related to applications, curriculum development, coordination and education of basic life sciences at the Faculty and the coordination and education of nursing sciences at the Faculty and University. Nurses‘ education at the faculty is 8 semesters long. The first 3 semesters contain the basic courses (eg. anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, medical terminology, first aid...), the 5-7th semester the professional courses (eg. internal medicine, surgery, neurology, pediatrics...)and the 8th semester the final professional field practices at the hospitals. After Bachelor the nurses have the opportunity to attend the Master degree programme.


Staff profiles of UDINE-C members

Prof. Dr. József BETLEHEM PhD

Prof. Dr. József Betlehem from 2010 until 2018 November was the Dean and Head of Institute at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pécs. He was the responsible Ministerial Commissioner of the Ministry of Human Resources to coordinate the development of advanced practice professional’s healthcare model in order to increase efficiency in the public health system until 31st May 2018. He is a member and executive officer of several Hungarian and international professional organizations. Before and later partly in parallel starting his academic work he worked for the National Ambulance Service. In addition to his professional qualifications in healthcare, he has a pedagogical teacher and a liberal arts degree. He began his PhD degree in the nurses’ quality of life at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and finished it in 2006 at the Doctoral School of Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pécs. 5 years later he obtained habilitational doctoral degree. He is an editorial board member of 3 international and 2 Hungarian professional journal and the Editor-in-Chief of one Hungarian.
He led the Education, Training and Scientific Committee of The Hungarian Healthcare Workers’ Chamber between 2004 and 2016. He was a member of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee’s Medical, Health and Sport Sciences’ Committee between 2010 and 2015. He is performing tasks in the Higher Education Design Board.
In recent years he led the coordination of professional renewal works in the education of health sciences according to the European Qualifications Framework at the Hungarian Rectors’ Conference. From October, 2018 Dr Betlehem is the Vice Rector for Connections and Strategic Affairs at the University of Pécs.

Dr. habil. Orsolya Máté PhD

Since 2020 she is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Director of Foreign Affairs of the Faculty. She got his PhD degree in the field of health sciences in 2013 and later in 2020 she habilitated also at the University of Pécs in the same field. She has an active participating role in the establishing of the Advanced Practice Nurse academic program in Hungary since September, 2017. Her research interest is especially the health communication and the health education/-promotion and the role of APRN worldwide. She closely cooperates with national and international universities and she is member of several academic councils of universities and faculties and active member/leader of several international projects.

Dorina PUSZTAI RN, MNS, assistant lecturer

She had a bachelor of nursing science from the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2015. After finishing the basic studies she started to work as a subject teacher at the Institute of Nursing Sciences, Basic Health Sciences and Health Visiting. She is one of the main lecturer of the nursing international program of the Institute teaching basic nursing skills and surgical nursing. In addition to her work she completed the master degree of nursing science and now has been working on her doctoral research about the impact of smart electronic devices on the quality of patients’ life. She works at the intensive care unit of the heart surgery as a volunteer. She is active in international cooperations, projects and researches.