The University of Miskolc has a particular privilege and honour to invite and welcome you all, government officials, international and national organisations' personnel, academics, industry representatives, to this SEFI and IGIP Joint Annual Conference in 2007. We are very proud of this forum that both Societies appreciated our candidature and gave priority to the organisation of this Conference here. Our intention is to remind you of the fact on how the academic, administrative and technical staff of this University have been looking forward to this specific event and your participation in the programmes.

Although you came to a relatively new and renovated University campus, its predecessor has a long history being one of the first engineering education institutions in the world. In 1735 the Court Chamber of Vienna established a Berg Schola (Mining and Metallurgical School) in Selmecbánya, located in the territory of Slovakia since 1920. It served as an example to other engineering schools like in Freiberg 1765, Berlin 1770, St. Petersburg 1773, Paris École Polytechnique 1794 and later on Clausthal, Madrid, Mexico city followed. After several improvements and moving to Sopron in 1919 the new Act of the Parliament in 1949 established Technical University for Heavy Industry in Miskolc. The new Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with the Faculties of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering working in Sopron were integrated in Miskolc, which was the most important industry area in the country,.

Currently, the three Faculties of Mechanical, Material Science and Metallurgy, Earth Science and Mining Engineering are running courses in the fields of mechanical, energy, electrical, electronic, control, metallurgical, environmental, mining engineering, information technology, mechatronics, material science with total 400 academics and 7000 full-time students. Some courses are taught in foreign languages mainly in English and German. Foreign students are also studying here since the early 1980's. Credit system was introduced a couple of years ago to facilitate the students mobility. The Bologna process is under implementation, BSc programmes have been accredited by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee and the majority of MSc programmes are to be accredited soon. All three engineering Faculties are running PhD programmes in 3-year duration. Since the early 1980es the University has new specialisations like Faculties of Law, Economics, Humanities and Social Science, Health Care plus Music School and Teacher Training College.

This was the reason why the name of the institution was converted to University of Miskolc (UM) in 1990. All in one, the University has 820 academics/lecturers and 14,000 full-time students.

Research is an important component in everyday professional life of the University. There is a new Co-operative Research Centre on Mechatronics and Material Science and another new Regional University Knowledge-based Centre on Mechatronics and Logistics Systems attached to the University to improve the link with over 50 industries. In addition, joint projects with industry, participation in the National Scientific Research Fund, the EU Framework projects help the University to be an efficient, successful member of the European Research Area.

International co-operation is a part of recognition of UM worldwide. Nowadays the University has co-operation scheme with 80 foreign Universities in all continents. Participation in networks enjoys primary target: Socrates E4 (Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe) between 2001 and 2004, Socrates TREE (Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe) working since 2004 projects both under the leadership of University of Florence are well worth mentioning.

The link with SEFI and IGIP goes back to the early 1980es: active participation with several contributions in SEFI Annual Conferences, hosting Working Groups of Curriculum Development, its seminar, Women in Engineering, Mathematics in Engineering Education and its seminar here were the milestones. University delegates participated with presentations in IGIP Conferences in Villach, Klagenfurt, Budapest, Portoroz.

Such a list can never be complete, engineering education has to face so many new challenges day by day and this Conference will provide a fantastic opportunity to "joining forces in engineering education for excellence". Thanks to you all for coming with the hope that the friendships still existing will be improving and entirely new ones will be established to build up together a new, peaceful, wealthy and comfortable world.

On behalf of the University of Miskolc staff I wish to you all a successful Conference with remarkable output and a pleasant stay here to remember this event for a long time.