‘Education in the mother tongue is the most significant guarantee of the prosperity of people in their homeland, and the Ukrainian Government is planning to deny them this opportunity’, Árpád János Potápi, the State Secretary for National Policy at Hungary’s Office of the Prime Minister, said on Thursday at the ceremonial opening of the 2017/2018 academic year at János Selye University in Komárno, Slovakia, and called on to take a common stand for Hungarians in Ukraine. ‘Dreams can only be made come true by joining forces and uniting wills,’ Árpád János Potápi noted in his speech, highlighting that János Selye University, the first and only Hungarian-language university of Slovakia, is an outstanding example of such standing together.

The State Secretary pointed out that there is only one thing that is more difficult than obtaining such results, and that is the preserving of achievements made, and the institution in Komárno has managed to preserve its achievements. He stated that János Selye University — that has become a point of stability in the life of Hungarians in Slovakia during the past decade — has recently managed to fulfil the requirements necessary for preserving its university status.

He added that the institution has almost doubled the number of its students, and has multiplied the number of its training programmes since opening its doors, it has thus given an impressive demonstration of its viability as can be seen by the fact that the university has an increasing number of students from Hungary. János Selye University is one of the most recent founded universities in Slovakia; the Slovak legislature approved its foundation in 2003. The main purpose of its foundation was to provide Hungarian-language high-quality education and training for primary school and secondary school teachers, and for theologians, and to train professionals in the fields of finance, information technology, and marketing. The university offers Bachelor and Master’s level education and training at the Faculty of Teacher Training, Economics, and Reformed Theology, and also doctoral programmes. The university has more than 2000 students.
(www.ujszo.com, 14 Sept 2017)

Minority Report / Bulletin on the Hungarian Community in Slovakia