The Hungarian Economic Association (HEA) and the University of Nyíregyháza signed a cooperation agreement on Thursday in Nyíregyháza. The aim of the agreement is to form a bridge between the university, the local business community and the civil sector, contributing to the utilisation of the knowledge generated at the university for the benefit of the city and the county’s economy. The agreement was signed by János Hárskuti, President of the University of Nyíregyháza, Gyula Pleschinger, President of the HEA and Zoltán Mádi, President of the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Organisation of the HEA.
The University of Nyíregyháza is a knowledge and innovation centre in the region, which plays a decisive role in providing human resources for the economy, and its cultural mission helps to improve the region’s population retention capacity and quality of life. The University aims to provide existing and incoming employers in the region with a workforce that is up-to-date and capable of continuously improving its skills. The university’s new partner in this work is the Hungarian Economic Association, the oldest and most important organisation of Hungarian economists, founded in 1894 and with some 3,500 members.
In signing the cooperation agreement, Gyula Pleschinger, President of the Hungarian Economic Association, recalled that the Association held its first rural conference – or an ankête, as it was called at the time – in Nyíregyháza 90 years ago, on 10 November 1935. The city and the University of Nyíregyháza are also a very popular venue for the largest annual conferences of the profession, the Economists’ Itinerant Congresses. The success of these events and the activity of the HEA’s county organisation led the Hungarian Economic Association to conclude a cooperation agreement with the University of Nyíregyháza, the third in the country after Eszterházy Károly Catholic University in Eger and Budaesti Metropolitan University.
The aim of the cooperation is to strengthen the reputation of both the university and the Hungarian Economic Association, contributing to the socialisation of the university’s scientific activities and research results. The aim is also to enable the university’s economics students to acquire practical knowledge and a network of contacts that are essential for a successful life beyond the university classroom. In line with its statutory objectives, HEA aims to be a bridge between the university, the local business community and the civil society. To this end, the association plans to bring prestigious conferences and professional lectures to the University of Nyíregyháza and undertakes to offer university lecturers and researchers the opportunity to appear at its events. In addition to hosting these events, the university will help to set up and run an HEA youth organisation at the University of Nyíregyháza.
On the occasion of the event, Tünde Harsági, Secretary of the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Organisation of HEA, received the Hungarian Economic Association’s Economist Award. Gyula Pleschinger, President of the HEA, presented the award to the honoree.