Our History

The history of our school dates back to 1879, foudation of the Public Secondary Industrial School of Budapest. The industrial and economic boom following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise required that secondary vocational specialists and foremen be trained. It was also high time for tradesmen to be further trained. The Public Secondary Industrial School of Budapest, established by Minister of Religion and Public Education Ágoston Trefort, was intended for this dual purpose; it operated under the name Hungarian Royal Public Higher Industrial School from 1898.

The legendary Higher Industrial School – the Tech, as it became known internationally – set an example to successors by creating concordance between high-standard theoretical and practical training. In the building designed by Alajos Hauszman, described as the "palace of Hungarian industries" by the Chronicler of Pesti Napló, the most excellent professors of the age transmitted their knowledge to the young, including Lajos Petrik, Géza Jalsoviczky, Illés Aladár Edvi, Ödön Faragó, Ödön Lencz, Dániel Arany, just to mention the most important ones.

The first principal of the school was Károly Hegedűs. A world-famous student was József Galamb , designer of the FORD Model T.

It was a great honour that the school had great success (winning a "grand prix" award) at the 1900 Paris World Fair. Similarly outstanding was the success of the involvement of professors and special instructors of the school in the organisation of the 1906 Milan World Fair and in the production of exhibits.

In the years after the turn of the century – perhaps because of the results achieved – the numbers of applicants, students admitted and students graduated grew rapidly.

The Higher Industrial School undertook a sad task between 1914 and 1916. As a consequence of wartime incidents, the mechanical workshops of the institute joined military service and produced bullets for the army.

The Great Depression of 1929 had a severe impact on the school as well. Education continued with enormous financial problems, assisted by donations. Slow positive developments were interrupted by the subsequent war.

As a result of educational reforms following World War II, the school provided training and education as a secondary school of mechanics. At the ceremony of the 75th anniversary of its foundation, the institution adopted the name of Donát Bánki, one of the most outstanding mechanical engineers of 20th-century Hungary, and a professor of international reputation at Joseph Technical University. Both the professors and the students at the institution were always proud to declare themselves to be active participants in this creative workshop, spreading the goodwill of the school both domestically and abroad, in the whole wide world.

Pursuant to the 1969 law-decree granting college rank, the college is assigned to the following: to train technical specialists suitable for controlling technical preparations for machine industry production, manufacturing process design, design and production of simple manufacturing tools, and the operation of manufacturing and assembly plants and their equipment. From 1991, the name of the institution was modified to Donát Bánki Technical College by broadening the educational profile, ensuring that engineers have a wide range of professional skills and state-of-the art information.

Pursuant to Act LII of 1999 by the National Assembly on the transformation of the institutional network in tertiary education, by the integration of

  • Donát Bánki Technical College,
  • Kálmán Kandó Technical College, and
  • The Technical College of Light Industry,

Budapest Tech was established on 1 January 2000. 
Following changes in assignments and the educational system, the name of the faculty was changed to Óbuda University, Donát Bánki Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering on 1 January 2007.

The Doctoral School of Applied Informatics at Budapest Tech was accredited by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee in 2009, thereby our college complied with the last condition of becoming a university; so, pursuant to the ruling of the National Assembly, we have continued under the name Óbuda University since 1 January 2010.