Faculty of Horticulture and Rural Development
The Faculty of Horticulture and Rural Development in Kecskemét has been training future horticulturalists for six decades, while study programmes in rural development and agricultural economics were launched 15 years ago. Thanks to the Faculty's high standard of practice-oriented and pragmatic training, its graduates are welcomed with open arms in all segments of agriculture. The practice orientated training is supported by demonstration gardens, training farms and product engineering factory units. The number of partners involved in dual training is increasing.
The Faculty offers popular scientific conferences, further education training courses and unique products made in its food producing factory units.
Faculty location and environs
The buildings of the Faculty of Horticulture and Rural Development are situated in a comfortable residential suburb of Kecskemét, close to the city centre. The facilities are only a five-minute walk from the train station and coach terminal, and the bus departing from the city centre lets students off at the Faculty “doorstep”.
The 270-hectare Practice Farmland located in Kecskemét-Kisfái serves as the educational base and venue for high-level, practice-oriented training of students attending the Faculty seeking to learn the basic tasks of production. Through taking part in Faculty-led R&D activities, students can apply their newly acquired knowledge to modernise production, and are able to provide professional consultancy for market actors in the agricultural sector. The Faculty provides a versatile range of practical education: studies of crop production, production of vegetables, viticulture, and the production of fruit are embraced in equal measure.
Newly planted crop-lands, vineyards and orchards of the Faculty’s Study Garden are ideal sites for field trials and the observation of plant varieties. Such improvements support the modernisation of technologies. In the Study Garden, students attend trainings related to the growing of vegetables, fruit, grapevines and ornamentals, thus familiarising themselves with the operations of growing equipment and the problematics of storage.
András Palkovics PhD, Dean
“Our graduates are engineers who possess both an entrepreneurial spirit and specialised expertise that can be adapted even in the context of a rapidly changing industrial structure. Furthermore, they aren't intimidated by the need to regularly update their knowledge. Thanks to the pragmatic skills acquired at the Faculty, they can create a stable existence for themselves and their families, either as employees or as entrepreneurs, for there is a growing demand for highly qualified professionals who — in addition to their expertise in production — possess adequate knowledge in matters of organisation, marketing, logistics and EU affairs. The Faculty's master's programmes endow these new agricultural professionals with skills, competencies and knowledge that is applicable anywhere in Europe.