In the new structure of the Dean's Office, Laura Berta Csík, who previously worked as the project manager of the Quality Management Group and has been working at our School since 2018, is the head of the Student Service Department.
Written by Rita Schweier
- Which offices belong to your department?
- The newly established Student Service Department consists of six offices. In the new organizational structure, the Hungarian, English and German Admissions and Student Service Offices, the International Relations and Erasmus Office belong to us, and through our heads of offices we also provide the background for the administrative operation of the HÖK (Hungarian Student Council) and EGSC Offices.
- How challenging is it to manage so many offices?
- In my previous position, I did not really have any insight into the operation of the Student Service Centres, so during the restructuring I had to familiarise myself with a completely new area, get to know the tasks and operation of the department. Moreover, this coincided with the start of the academic year burdened with the pandemic, so the first period was full of challenges and operational tasks to be solved immediately. By now, we have got to the point where I can focus on improving the department. After taking over the management of the offices, I tried to unify processes, find a common denominator for these, and in many ways this was achieved as well. Fortunately, in this process I have received a lot of support from my colleagues, who I can count on in everything, they help my activity with their experience and expertise.
- What does it mean to lead this department in everyday life?
- We have a lot of tasks that require the offices to work or communicate with the students in a coordinated way, in collaboration with each other, and I coordinate all this. Given that we are performing the tasks of the Hungarian Admissions and Student Service Office with a completely new team, I had to pay special attention to this area and to the handover process of the programs they manage, which was successfully carried out by mid-October. Procedures for each project are being developed to facilitate future work and make the tasks performed by the offices more predictable. In addition, as the Student Services Department, we constantly receive inquiries from the student organizations as well, who interpret the requests and problems raised by students, and we try to find reassuring solutions to them as soon as possible. Overall, I see that the restructuring has provided an opportunity to clarify, expand the tasks and responsibilities of each unit and set up the framework, which will form the basis of our future work.
- How will students perceive the department-level operation?
- The most important thing for me is to provide high quality services, improve student satisfaction and students’ commitment to the university. We are working closely with the Marketing and Communications Department, and if we do our job well, it will also make their lives easier because satisfied students will also be the target group of the Alumni program in the future.
- How could the “ars poetica” of the department be formulated?
- I would like the services we provide to be independent of which program students are studying in. An essential condition for this is the quality of the service and the fact that all students are informed about the information, opportunities and programs that affect them at the same time, in a consistent way.