The following pages contain an introduction to the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Debrecen. Our faculty is very new, having been formed in 2004 as the result of a long process of organic growth. The teaching of information technology began in 1972 at the Kossuth Lajos University of Sciences, one of the predecessors to the University of Debrecen, when 20 students enrolled to study Programming Mathematics. Today, some of those first students are highly respected instructors at the Faculty. In 1972, the Computer Science Department was established as a sub-division of the Faculty of Mathematics, with a teaching staff of seven instructors headed by Dr. Ernő Gesztelyi.
The pace of change has been breathtaking over the past decades, especially in the field of information technology. The computer has become a common household object. Today, computers and software are not only integral elements of company management and civil administration, but have become an inseparable part of our everyday lives, and the internet gives us virtually instantaneous access to an almost limitless pool of information.
The changes undergone by society have not left our University unaffected either. Indeed, they have been one of the driving forces behind our growth. The numbers of IT students, instructors and departments, have multiplied, and the range of courses we offer has also expanded. At the end of the 1980s, we began providing university-level education in Programming Mathematics, IT Teaching and Library IT. We have also played an active role in the founding and running of the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Doctoral School. Today, the Faculty's five departments employ a total of 70 instructors, who are supported in their work by the Dean's Office, the Systems Administration Group and the specialist library, which is shared with the Faculty of Natural Science's Institute of Mathematics. The IT Faculty currently has 1,700 students.
The formation of our Faculty has coincided with implementation of the Bologna process, which has fundamentally determined the direction for future development of higher education in Hungary. We have successfully completed accreditation of the basic specialisations, and in 2004 we were the first institution in Hungary to offer a degree in Software Design. In 2005 we launched the IT Engineering course, and from 2006 we will also run Business IT and Library IT degree courses. The curricula of the master’s degree courses are also being formulated, with the assistance and cooperation of several other faculties: the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture and the Faculty of Natural Sciences. After gaining their master's degrees, our students also have the opportunity to study for their PhD at the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Doctoral School.
The Faculty of Informatics fulfils an important role with regard to higher education and scientific research in the region. Our instructors have decades of experience in training IT professionals to internationally recognised standard. We consider it a key priority to cooperate with local industry and service providers. We aim to ensure that specialists who graduate from Debrecen do not feel compelled to pursue a career elsewhere, but that as many as possible are able to find employment in the region. To this end we have initiated the Debrecen InfoPark project, and work as closely possible with local enterprise.

Sincerely,
Dr. György Terdik, Dean