Starting in November, the University of Veterinary Medicine (ÁTE) implemented a wage increase on a historic scale, Rector Péter Sótonyi announced on Wednesday in Budapest. The head of the institution put it this way: the salary increase means a huge qualitative change for the university, which is starting its 235th academic year this year.
According to his explanation, the guaranteed minimum salary for teaching assistants and assistants working there has increased to HUF 500,000, that of assistant professors to HUF 600,000, that of associate professors to HUF 750,000, and that of university professors to HUF one million.
The rector also mentioned that lecturers participating in foreign language education receive an additional allowance, and the publication activities of all their authors are supported with HUF 300,000, and obtaining an academic degree means an additional HUF 500,000 salary. The salary of young colleagues who passed the European Diplomate exam was raised to HUF one million, he added.
Péter Sótonyi also announced that, in addition to the wage increase implemented in November, all workers will receive a 15 percent wage increase from January 1, so that, for example, teaching assistants will earn at least HUF 575,000. Thanks to this, "colleagues are happy to stay here and we can keep the talents here", he assessed.
The rector emphasized that the university's model change created the opportunity for an outstanding wage increase in Hungarian higher education.
He also said that starting in March, a "grandiose" research center will be built at the university, in which a modern animal house for animal experiments that strictly takes animal protection aspects into account, a digital food chain research center, and a comparative medicine research center will also be created.
Out of 98 veterinary training institutions in Europe, the Budapest one is considered the fourth, at the same time, ÁTE has set itself the goal of becoming the first, leading veterinary training institution in the world, said Péter Sótonyi.
According to the press material distributed at the event, in 2020, ÁTE was one of the first six model-changing universities to gain full autonomy. As a result of the agreement with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, the state support of ÁTE has doubled. The state has defined various indicators to measure the performance of the university. These include the number of students, the institution's place in international rankings, in which research and publication performance play a decisive role, they wrote. The summary also mentions that this academic year, 700 Hungarian and 1,200 foreign students are studying in Budapest with the international accreditation of the European Association of Veterinary Training Institutions.
MTI
Photo: Péter Sótonyi, the rector of the University of Veterinary Medicine (ÁTE) holds a press conference in Budapest, at the higher education institution, on December 8, 2021, about the historic wage increase implemented at the university since November.
According to his explanation, the guaranteed minimum salary for teaching assistants and assistants working there has increased to HUF 500,000, that of assistant professors to HUF 600,000, that of associate professors to HUF 750,000, and that of university professors to HUF one million. MTI/Zoltán Balogh
