Budapest Business School


Budapest Business School is a public university business school specializing in business studies and social sciences located in Budapest, Hungary. Founded in 1857 by merchants and bankers of Austria-Hungary in order to establish the economic vocational training of higher education in the empire and in Central Europe. It is the oldest public business school in the world, and second oldest among business schools, after the ESCP Europe.
The Budapest Business School is Hungary's market leading and largest business school and conducts education and research in leadership, economics, operations management, marketing, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and other areas; as of this time, its most acclaimed programs are finance, accounting, strategic management, and tourism. The School offers a wide range of graduate-level academic programs and concentrations. In the latest academic year the Budapest Business School offers 12 Bachelor's degree programs, in case of most programs in English, French, German and Hungarian language as well. It offers 12 Master's degree programs, of which the most populars are Master of Finance, Master of Management, Master of International Business and Master of Tourism Management. Moreover, offers PhD in Management doctoral school, 51 post-graduate professional qualification with either Hungarian, English, German, Dutch or French state degree accreditations, being recognized within the European Union and throughout the world.

History

Budapest Business School was founded as the Pest Academy of Commerce that was established in 1857, which is the official predecessor of the BBS faculties College of Finance and Accountancy and the College of Catering, Commerce and Tourism. Pest Academy of Commerce was founded by the second president of the Pest Chamber of Commerce, József Appiano, Antal Valero and by Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph. At the beginning, the language of education was German at the academy.
It was the first higher educational institution for business studies in Austria-Hungary, thus it was the first business school in Central Europe. Moreover, it is the oldest existing business school in the world, following the ESCP Europe with its campuses in Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Torino. After the cities Buda and Pest merged, the institution was renamed to Budapest Academy of Commerce. Most of the business professionals and economists of the country gained their qualifications there as it was the only business school in the country that time.
Architect Győző Czigler designed the Alkomány street campus of the Budapest Academy of Commerce in 1882, and the construction was finished in 1885, when the construction of the Hungarian Parliament Building was also starting directly next to it. He was the architect of the Széchenyi thermal bath and many other famous buildings. The campus at the Alkotmány street is still one of the main campuses of the Budapest Business School. BBS's campus at the Markó street is also located in Downtown Budapest. It is also a monumental building, designed by famous architect Ferenc Kolbenheyer in neoclassical style in 1872. The Markó street campus of the Budapest Business School is a close but more modest kin of the top-ranked ETH Zurich, designed by Gottfried Semper and Gustav Zeuner. There is a famous Council Room at the Markó street campus called Lotz Room, full with paintings painted by Károly Lotz and Mór Than. Many of the conferences of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union was held in this room, and in other lecture rooms of the Markó street campus. Budapest Academy of Commerce was a private business school until 1949, when it was secularized by the government, becoming a public business school.
After the school was renamed and changed several times, the College of Accountancy was established in 1953, and the College of Catering and Commerce was established in 1969. The forerunner of the College of International Management is the School of International Commerce that was established in 1957.
In January 2000, the colleges created the Budapest Business School and became faculties of the university.
The university was awarded the Quality Award of Higher Education by the Minister of Education in 2010.
In March 2011, the College of Business Administration faculty was established out of the College of Finance and Accounting campus in Zalaegerszeg.

Predecessors of the Budapest Business School

NameLocationPeriod
1Pest Academy of CommercePest1857–1873
2Budapest Academy of CommerceBudapest1873–1953
3Oriental Academy of CommerceBudapest1899–1920
4College of AccountancyBudapest1953–1970
5College of Finance and AccountancyBudapest1970–2000
6College of International ManagementBudapest1969–2000
7College of Commerce, Catering and TourismBudapest1969–2000
8Budapest Business SchoolBudapest2000–present

Faculties and Schools of the Budapest Business School

BBS is dedicated solely to the study and research of business and social sciences, and is the only university in Hungary to be so. BBS awards a range of academic degrees spanning bachelors, masters and PhDs. Profile of the university's well established degree programs is the following:
Budapest Business School also offers 51 postgraduate professional degree programs.

International partnerships

The Budapest Business School is a higher education institution with wide-ranging international relations. It has active connections with more than 200 foreign higher education institutions in nearly 50 countries on five continents. There are academic programs in international cooperation at several levels at BBS. Students taking part in the International Business Economics program in English can be awarded the degree of a Dutch partner institution, the Avans Hogeschool's International School, Breda or a German partner HEI, the Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt am Main. The same study program in French is jointly run with the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens. Graduates of this program are also awarded a French degree. In addition to the dual award program, there are three bachelor programs running in a foreign language: Commerce and Marketing in English and German, Finance and Accounting in English, while Tourism and Catering in English and German. An English-language Masters Program in Tourism-Management was launched in September 2011, and in International Relations will be launched in September 2012. The graduates can also enroll in an Anglia Ruskin University postgraduate degree program entitled MA International Business delivered in Budapest. BBS offers English-language PhD Program also, in collaboration with ARU. Due to the excellent connections with Hagen University of Distance Learning certain subjects taken in the Hungarian program are recognized by the German university.
BBS takes part in numerous international projects - either as a consortium leader or consortium partner. At present BBS has exchange agreements with more than 170 institutions of higher education in nearly 30 countries and we have a wide range of Finnish, French, German, and Spanish connections within the framework of Erasmus program. BBS is noted for its wider-ranging Asian relations that include cooperation with Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese higher education institutions.

AIESEC at the Budapest Business School

Budapest Business School is the only higher educational institution in the world that hosts several offices of AIESEC. AIESEC is the third largest non-profit organization in the world, after the United Nations and the Red Cross. It is run by students, getting the university students and the corporate sector together, providing exceptional experiences for students. As there is one AIESEC office for each BBS faculty, there are exceptionally three AIESEC offices at the Budapest Business School, out of the five AIESEC offices in the city of Budapest.

Rankings and reputation