The Institute of Transdisciplinary Discoveries was established in 2018 at our School with the aim of connecting the university with society and the business sector, in order for people to know what is happening within the walls of the university - what current research and other activities are ongoing – and to not imagine its operation as an ivory tower. This means, on the one hand, the continuous informing of the external environment, the mapping of potential partners and a needs assessment that can then be channelled into the university environment on the other.
Professor Attila Sík, the head of the institute came home from England to bring this way of thinking to the University of Pécs, as well as to offer his network of contacts. Since the establishment of the institute, he has introduced new courses and is also working on the launch of a special program unknown in Hungary, which will presumably attract many foreign students to the University of Pécs. We talked about the activities, ideology and plans of the institute as well.
Written by Rita Schweier
- Does an institute like the one in Pécs exist in Europe or in other parts of the world?
- I know about something similar in China but we are unique in Europe, I do not know any institute that focuses on opening to the society as well. Collaborations have already been established with the business sector in connection with innovations in various fields of science but only we have the university-business-society triangle in mind for the time being.
- You not only communicate what has happened in science to the outside world, but also consider it your mission to facilitate the emergence of new disciplines and methodological approaches within the boundaries of existing disciplines. To this end, you seek to provide a space that facilitates and encourages the transition and division of labour between different disciplines.
- Transdisciplinarity is, in our view, above multi- and interdisciplinarity. If we were just trying to connect different disciplines, our activities would be multi- and interdisciplinarity. Of course, this is very important because it provides the basis for transdisciplinarity. Breakthrough innovations always come from the peripheries, there are many examples of this and we try to make it easier for different disciplines to interact, to take over certain methods from each other.
- How does this approach appear in education?
- On the one hand, by announcing our courses at various faculties. We have recently finished our new course, “Medical humanities”, which was held in English by my colleagues, mainly for international students. It was about the humanities approach to medicine. In addition, we also have the very successful "Sell Yourself!" course, which has four stations now. The point of this is how we present the results, how we communicate them - it is a multifaceted training. We focus on skills development, not on academic, lexical knowledge, therefore our education includes many practical elements. We have more and more small seminar presentations where our aim is the active participation of students. Our experience is that students do not have debating skills, do not dare to ask, do not dare to express their opinion, which is why it is important to teach them these things.
These are elective courses, of which there are several types at the Medical School and taking into account foreign trends, they will presumably be included in the compulsory ones over time. There is less and less need for transferring lexical knowledge because it can be learned but skills are much more difficult to acquire. Employers, companies are looking for employees who can debate, argue, ask questions; they are not interested in which subjects a potential employee has received what kind of grade. This need of employers is supported by international surveys as well.
We are also planning to launch a new program called “Integrated natural sciences and humanities”. This can be a great opportunity for students who are not only attracted to real or human subjects but are also interested in, say, biology and philosophy. We have multidisciplinary education in mind, which includes skills development as well as developing critical thinking or debating skills.
- Are students interested in peripheral disciplines?
- It is increasing more and more. "Sell Yourself!" is our oldest course, which is always full, there are 250 people in the Hungarian lectures and at least a hundred people gather in the English lecture as well. The important thing is to provide students with training that they also appreciate and after which they come out of the room thinking that it is good because it helps my career, my life move forward and it broadens my vision.
- Who are the teachers?
- We are an eclectic team, which is also an important part of our institute. We have a lawyer, a biologist, an IT specialist, an engineer, a philosopher, and so on. We will also launch a course on Dr. House’s philosophy - the periphery of medicine and philosophy - that my philosopher colleague will hold. My engineer colleague is focusing on the issue of radiation with a visit to the Paks Nuclear Power Plant as well. I think these will be memorable classes, which students will remember heartily later on. They will not be like a compulsory exam that they forget. Our aim is to show the world in its diversity and not to have unprofessional graduates leaving the university, but young people who can approach a problem in many ways.
- For this educational approach, it is essential to bring together teachers from different faculties.
- Yes, it is also a difficulty, but if we succeed, it will pay off. When I moved back to Hungary after more than twenty years, I chose the University of Pécs because it has ten faculties and this has a huge potential, as has finding the peripheries and the birth of new disciplines.
- Are there enough professionals to develop the topics you find important, to start the courses?
- Yes because our teachers do not teach anything other than what they do anyway - for example chemistry, biology, philosophy - and, of course, supplemented by what we add, including various skills developments, multidisciplinary knowledge and critical thinking. We also have a professional for the latter, a colleague of mine who has gained practice in England for this. Although I myself did not take part in the teaching of “Liberal Arts” abroad but I saw how it works and I was present at discussions about starting and running programs similar to ours, I could hear the experience gathered about them. Ours is different from these in that it is based on natural sciences, abroad it is called “Liberal Arts and Sciences” and there are only 5-6 of them. The point is to supplement the basic knowledge of natural sciences with the humanities.
Such a program does not yet exist in Hungary, or even in Central Europe, therefore it is currently submitted for ministerial approval. This would be a basic program, on which a master training and then a doctoral school would be built. Fundamentally, we have an English language education in mind and welcome students from abroad.
- In addition to the uniqueness and attractiveness of the natural science aspect, what else can you say about choosing the University of Pécs to those who are interested in it?
- Training like ours is only available in England and the Netherlands, but it is no longer possible to get into these universities because the oversubscription is huge. If only the people “left behind” came to us, we would be satisfied with that. It would also have a positive financial impact because these are self-financed trainings. Young people know that this is where the future lies. We, the teachers squint at them and do not understand why they do not learn the material from the books. We have socialized differently than they have, we do not have to go to job interviews where we have to argue for or against something, where we have to stand up for our opinion but they do and they need help with that. Of course, there is a lot to learn from books as well, I am one of the good examples of this because I even learned to skate from a book but it is much more professional if someone passes on this knowledge.
We will also have foreign teachers - I am only referring to my English and American relations now - and there are only a few examples of this, too, and there are not many programs today where it is possible. It also provides an opportunity to transfer a different approach and thinking structure and it helps to build relationships as well. In fact, I came home to bring this mindset here and offer my network of contacts. With the help of these, we can offer something at the University of Pécs that others do not and this provides a serious advantage for us. It is also very important to mentor the students, which I have seen a great example of in England and we are slowly starting to figure it out. It is not about academic mentoring, it is about building a safety net: I ask how they feel, whether they have financial problems, why they drink so much alcohol, namely human care. If we can provide them with this too, the word will spread.
- Can the new program start in September?
- Certainly not yet, it is expected to start next year in September, for the time being our courses will take place. It is important to note that with this new program we represent elite training, small group education. This is the only way to deal with highly talented students. We will be working with twenty to forty young people, all of whose grades are “five plus”, who are open-minded and have excellent knowledge of English. They are likely to be in leadership positions in the future, whether in the corporate or political sector, thus significantly strengthening our university alumni network. Not many people know that the leaders of large international companies often do not come from professions related to the operation of the company, but from the field of humanities or people who have learned it too. I could mention the leaders of YouTube, Slack, Avon, American Express or Starbucks. Perhaps the best known of them is Steve Jobs who, although he did not complete his humanities studies, continued to study Liberal Arts subjects and considered this to be very important in connection with creating Apple’s operating philosophy and values. The significance and popularity of this knowledge will hopefully spread among Hungarian young people after a while as well; we will welcome them in the new program. I believe that with this type of training innovation, we can not only meet educational and corporate needs, but also strengthen the reputation of both the faculty and the university internationally.