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The permanent exhibition on the history of the university, housed in the building of the University Library, Archives, and Museum in Miskolc, is once again open to the public. This is the third time the exhibition has been completely revamped since the 1980s; it now presents the university’s rich past in a modern format, with a look toward the present.
Founded in 1985 and operating as a museum, the University History Collection preserves and documents the history of the Alma Mater. The 130-square-meter exhibition space, which officially opened to the university community and the general public on September 22, is already in line with 21st-century visual aesthetics: it welcomes visitors in a clean, well-organized, and modern setting.
At the official opening of the University History Exhibition, Beáta Mariann Szabóné Kovács, Director General of the Library, Archives, and Museum, noted in her welcoming remarks that the exhibition is the result of the intellectual efforts of many, with the foundations laid by the library’s former director, the late Attila Szendi.
The Rector of the University of Miskolc, Prof. Dr. Zita Horváth, emphasized that it is important for us to navigate the complexities of higher education with an understanding of our past. Knowing the history of our own university can give us strength, as the university’s history embodies every change in the country’s history.
The past that this exhibition seeks to present is ours, and it can form the foundation of our identity,
Following the grand opening, Dr. Gábor Benkő, a curator at the Library, Archives, and Museum, provided a detailed overview of the collection.
The exhibition traces the history of the University of Miskolc and its predecessors from 1735 to the present day, but it goes far beyond the institution’s history. The exhibition presents campus life and academic milestones interactively from multiple perspectives: in addition to outstanding academic achievements of the past, it also highlights the present, for example, through the display of a world-class space furnace developed by the university’s researchers.
Students of the university and its predecessors also played a part in significant events in Hungary’s modern history, which is why the revamped exhibition also highlights these chapters of the university’s past: it features the 1848–49 War of Independence, the Trianon period, and October 1956, all of which are milestones in the history of the Alma Mater that deserve special attention.
A separate section is dedicated to the Selmec student traditions, which have been inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Visitors can view rare songbooks from the past century, old invitations, trophies from the revival of these traditions beginning in the 1960s, as well as uniforms from the 1930s–40s and the 2000s.
The revamped exhibition has also been designed with an international audience in mind: all informational materials are available in both Hungarian and English, ensuring a fully enriching experience for foreign visitors and students alike.
The University of Miskolc’s Exhibition on the History of the University
