The faculty focuses on three main areas of training: technical, arts, and IT education. Our high-quality work is well-demonstrated by the fact that our art students and faculty have won several national and international awards, and year after year, our wood engineering students consistently win podium places and special awards at a national competition.

Our faculty traditionally has strong industry connections and international connections. The faculty maintains close relations with 35 foreign universities, which provides a professional-scientific community and offers opportunities for our students to participate in courses abroad. The Doctoral School of Wood Science and Technology is well-connected to our innovation activities and international relations.

We work hard to make our students as successful after graduation. We consider creative thinking to be of particular importance, which we promote by organizing laboratories in which students absorb communicated knowledge and
apply it creatively by solving tasks individually or in small groups. We also consider it important that the three main fields of study of the faculty do not simply coexist, but that the worlds of technology, art and information technology and thinking meet in a special way in students’ lives. A nationally unique opportunity in the field of our educational and research services is that the specializations build on each other and can be brought into close synergy within one faculty. We shape our courses so that our students can find the skills they need, gain experience working with students in other fields, and thus prepare themselves for future work tasks that require a wide range of thinking.

We have renewed all of our training courses in recent years. In addition to high-quality infrastructure, the teaching staff is highly valued nationwide, with many qualified and internationally recognized teachers. The Faculty-related laboratories, workshops, and revamped Woodworking Institute offer the widest range of research and hands-on training in Central Europe with excellent hightech equipment.

“Wood and creativity are our passions.”

Prof. Dr. Magoss Endre dean

The goals of the bachelor course and competences to be learned

The programme trains students to become professionals in wood processing and utilisation. Students also acquire engineering knowledge such as computer-aided design and manufacturing. The Timber Industry BSc contains all the technical subjects needed for well-educated engineers. Attaining a level of knowledge that enables the graduate to assume and have an active role in sawmill industries, wood-based panel industry, wood processing technologies, door and window production, furniture design and timber structures. Additionally, the education provides a reliable base for a technical position or to enter the MSc programme.

Career opportunities: Timber industry engineers are welcome in the primary and secondary processing of wood (sawmills, furniture factories, wood construction companies, etc.), in research institutes and universities globally.

About the Faculty

The Faculty has come a long way from its roots in Selmecbánya in 1735. Building on our long experience, the Faculty of Wood Engineering and Creative Industries is heading to the high tech world in the fields of our competencies and has become one of the leading University centres in the Central European Region.

The Faculty focuses on three main areas of training: technical, arts, and IT education. Our high-quality work is well-demonstrated by the fact that our art students and Faculty have won several national and international awards, and year after year, our wood engineering students consistently win podium places and special awards at a national competition.

Career opportunities

Timber industry engineers are welcome in the primary and secondary processing of wood (sawmills, furniture factories, wood construction companies, etc.), in research institutes and universities globally.

Bachelor thesis project opportunities (examples)

• utilization of fast growing plantation wood species (poplar, pawlonia, robinia, etc.) for high value added products
• modification of wood’s properties (acetylation, thermal, hygro-thermal and other methods)
• technology development for pencil manufacturing
• product and technology development for outdoor furniture (incl. play grounds)
• NDT (non-destructive testing of wood), NIR spectra for moisture measurements
• colour stability of wood
• surface stability of hardwoods treated by different finishing materials
• Carbon fibre reinforced wood (load bearing elements)
• nano cellulose for film materials
• wood protection (materials, constructions)
• etc.

Competences

Competences to be obtained in the bachelors’ course:

• career-related theoretical and practical skills and their application in practical work and design,
• expected to construct and organize the investments of mechanically, structurally and technologically complex structures respecting the nature and human environment,
• systematic understanding and competence concerning materials, technology and products,
• user-level knowledge concerning computer-aided design,
• acquaintance with the general analysis and problem-solving techniques required for production processes,
• the practical application of their skills to solve emerging problems.

Credits

Number of credits from basic knowledge of natural sciences: 45.
Number of credits from economic and human knowledge: 14.
Number of credits from professional core material: 101.
Number of credits from optional subjects: 10.
Number of credits per specialization: 40.
Number of credits related to the thesis: 15.

Our Faculty offers specific educational objectives: Graduates from Wood Science Engineering create engineering structures (furniture, windows, doors, other wooden products) by utilizing and designing wood or wood based materials. They are expected to construct and organize the investments of mechanically, structurally and technologically complex structures respecting the nature and human environment. This study program enables the graduate to assume and active role in future technical developments, and to further his or her education by entering a MSc. programme.

The Timber Industry Engineer training is a practical training, 40% theory and 60% practice.

Timber industry technology specialization

The specialization in woodworking technology provides a classical, wide-ranging engineering knowledge in wood. It will prepare future woodworking engineers for a significant proportion of wood industry in the furniture and building tables industry and in the primary wood industry, saw and plywood industry, professional and organizational tasks.

During the course, students will get acquainted with the basic materials of wood-based finished products, the applied structures, the parting methods and the state-of-the-art product manufacturing technologies.

Students specializing in the specialization will also be able to perform production preparation and manufacturing organization tasks.

 

About the Doctoral School

The Jozsef Cziraki Doctoral School of Wood Sciences and Technologies was established in the early 1990’s, and has been fully accredited since 2002. During this period, 106 students successfully completed their studies.

The students receive strong theoretical, research methodology and scientific backgrounds, and complete their research individually, with some guidance from their advisors. Supervision is offered by the top experts and wood scientists in Hungary.

Research projects encompass a wide range of topics, including wood science and wood technology, pulp and fibre technology, wood construction, and even more loosely related topics of nanotechnology, architecture, light industry, or wood-related IT and marketing research.

The topics are typically linked to industrial research or innovation projects so that Sopron doctoral graduates have not only strong theoretical backgrounds, but are very practical scientists as well.

Details

STUDY PLAN FOR PHD STUDENTS AT THE CZIRÁKI JÓZSEF DOCTORAL SCHOOL

Working collaboratively with their doctoral supervisor, students admitted into the doctoral program shall prepare a detailed 48-month study and research plan and submit it to the doctoral council of their field of study for approval. Changes to the study and research plan can only be made with the agreement of their doctoral supervisor and the doctoral school leadership. Before the doctoral school leadership makes a decision concerning changes, it will consult the appropriate doctoral council.

The fulfilment of academic and research obligations for doctoral students is measured in credits. A doctoral student must earn at least 240 credits during their studies and training.

The most important components of the doctoral program are the research activity topics the doctoral school announces. Research activities are evaluated in two ways, both with corresponding credit values. The first is the fulfilment of individual scientific research; the second is through publication.

Doctoral students can also earn credit points by undertaking teaching duties.

With the consent of their doctoral supervisor, doctoral students can publish their research results if they have continuously fulfilled their duties according to the study and research plan. Within the framework of a doctoral conference, doctoral students report on the research they have completed at the end of Years 1 and 3. The report is public. Students take complex exams at the end of Year 2. The requirements of the complex exam include Operational Regulations.

To be eligible to take the complex exam, doctoral students must first obtain 90 credits in the "training and research stages" of the doctoral program (the first 4 semesters) AS WELL AS complete the required courses and earn all the credits as stated in their study and research plan.

The doctoral supervisor shall certify a doctoral student’s completion of independent scientific research each semester in the student’s registration book.

The minimum and maximum limits of obtainable credit points are listed in the table below.

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCTORAL PROGRAM CURRICULUM ARE THE FOLLOWING:

a) The theoretical part of the complex exam at the end of Year 2 consists of exams completed in a main and elective subject. The main subject must be a six credit complex examination subject from the student’s doctoral program, while the elective subject can be freely chosen from the selection of elective subjects offered in the complex exam.

b) Course requirements are concentrated in the beginning of the course of study thereby providing doctoral students the opportunity to devote more time to research starting from the Semester 3 onward.

c) Research requirements in Semester 1 and 2 are moderate for independent scientific research, but a review of literature and bibliographical research are still mandatory. However, Semester 3 and 4 are more research centred. The doctoral supervisor verifies the completion of this in the student’s registration book each semester.

d) Education credits: one weekly 2 hour course each semester is worth 6 credits; independent laboratory work equals 4 credits; degree planning is 4 credits. Fulfilment of education requirements are confirmed by the institute director.

The doctoral seminar must be completed in the first 4 semesters; every semester the student must participate in five presentations, a comprehensive/complex exam, and a defence. Dr. Antal Kánnár certifies the completion of these requirements through his signature.