Education

BSC course (biology)

In the undergraduate education we take part in the teaching of Hydrobiology (Fundamentals in limnology), ecology (Ecology lecture, practice, seminar, Biomonitoring, measurement and protection of Biodiversity), taxonomy (Plant and Animal Taxonomy field practice) and botany (e.g. in forest reserves and forest dynamics research). The courses are held both in Hungarian and English.

We consider the supervision of thesis to be of high importance, particularly in topics related to the projects taking place in our department, but we are also ready to help in the development of independent ones. While preparing a thesis at out department, it is also possible to create literature review or to develop a scientific topic based on fieldwork and laboratory experiments.

MSC courses
(Hydrobiology/Limnology, Biology/Hydroecology special block)

We hold courses mainly in hydrobiological / limnological topics in the Hydrobiology Master's Degree Program and also in the special block of Hydroecology in the Biology Master's Program, covering both the more general areas (hydroecology, waterbody typology, material flow, water classification, biomonitoring, etc.) and the more specialized areas related to different groups of organisms (microscopic aquatic organisms, aquatic plants, aquatic macroinvertebrates, aquatic vertebrates). In addition, our courses in less specialized topics such as research planning, taxonomy, statistics, or publication techniques are available also to other MSc specialization blocks. Other than the theoretical foundation, we place special emphasis on practice-oriented training, i.e. our students take an active role in the departmental works and acquire hydrobiological professional knowledge during the performance of independent tasks under competent supervision.

Our theses topics are mainly related to scientific projects taking place in our department, and scientific topics based on both fieldwork and laboratory experiments can be found among them. Beyond this we are also willing to help you develop independent topics.

Scientific Student Conferences(OTDK, OFKD)

With the results of their independent scientific work, our students have the opportunity to participate in scientific student conferences in both the undergraduate and master's courses. Our students have achieved great success so far in these events, collecting numerous podium places and special awards. We hope this will be the case in the future!

PHD course

Within the doctoral programme, we mainly focus on research topics, but we also keep courses in statistical analysis and scientific communication and publishing skills. The doctoral topics are, of course, strongly connected to the scientific projects taking place in our department, especially to the study of aquatic macroinvertebrates from different perspectives and the effects of climate change-induced drying of small watercourses on aquatic communities.

Journal Club, seminars and other events

We hold a ‘Journal Club’ (i.e. 'article evaluation events') in the department every two weeks. For each occasion, an instructor or a PhD or MSc student chooses an article, which we try to discuss from different perspectives following a short presentation. The purpose of Journal Clubs is very diverse. In addition to its team-building potential, we are always introduced to a new, intriguing topic that is a little further away from our research subject. We then review the article from a technical point of view: how it is written, how good the illustrations are, how it could be even better, what forward-looking ideas it contains, and what mistakes those we can learn from. Last but not least, an important aspect is of course practicing English!

Approximately monthly we hold departmental seminars, with a varied program. Whenever possible, some of our foreign or domestic guest researchers, partners or invited guests give a lecture. İt is always a priority as these are very interesting and instructive presentations. Occasionally, we provide an opportunity to prepare for important events in the life of the department: previous to Scientific Student Conferences, students present their work to the departmental community, we can hold a pre-home defense before doctoral defense, or students present their dissertation plan, based on these, we are trying to give them helpful advice. But there have been, and will be times of us delving into some interesting discovery, or just in a small scientific curiosity, after a short introduction.

Our department also tries to take part in science promotion by giving presentations to groups of children several times, and every year taking part in the Researchers' Night series of events, where we seek to bring research on aquatic life and cognition into ‘tangible proximity’ to a large number of participants, most notably young adolescents.