A new environment welcomes students who begin or continue their studies this autumn at the UP Faculty of Pharmacy: building K on Rókus Street has been renewed, which now has lecture halls, seminar rooms, offices, and modern student spaces as well. The Dean’s Office can also operate in a renewed environment, and its conference room can be optionally designed in the spirit of multifunctionality.
Written by Viktor Harta
In the spirit of increasing the educational capacity, broadening the educational structure, and innovation at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Pécs, serious developments began in 2017 within the framework of the Modern Cities Program. As a result of the investment of several hundred million HUF, the quality and capacity of the infrastructure serving the pharmacy training is significantly developing, which is necessary due to the increased number of domestic and international students.
An element of the faculty’s long-term development strategy and the latest milestone of its innovation is building K on Rókus Street, which has undergone significant renovation and expansion in its function and has been available to students and teachers since September 2021.
- The renovation of building K was realised in the 4th phase of the Modern Cities Program. A partial exterior and interior renovation took place in the frame of this, thanks to which the building was provided with additional functions – said dr. Katalin Sipos, associate professor, head of the UP Faculty of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, who was also the Vice-Dean of the Faculty at the beginning of the program.
During the work, four teaching rooms, two lecture halls for 88 people, and six seminar rooms - three for 15 and three for 41 people - were set up, and furniture and educational technology infrastructure were installed.
There was an urgent need for these newly established educational spaces: the Faculty of Pharmacy in Pécs, which has been operating as an independent faculty since 2016, was the only faculty of the University of Pécs that did not have any lecture halls of its own. Thanks to the new seminar rooms, pharmacy students no longer have to “visit” the UP Medical School, as now they have their place for small group activities.
With the renovation of the K building, the UP Faculty of Pharmacy has its place; simultaneously, the infrastructural environment of the pharmacy training in Pécs is now in place.
Thanks to the renovation, two departments of the Faculty of Pharmacy have also moved to Rókus Street: the Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and the Department of Pharmacology moved to the K building. The former has its own research laboratory.
Dr. Katalin Sipos said that during the renovation, they placed great emphasis on creating an environment that meets the needs of the students. To this end, community spaces were built on two floors, and the Student Council also received its own office. Another important point of the investment was the establishment of a new Dean’s Office with its offices and a large dean’s conference room. These are all housed in building K, and their furnishings took place in the summer.
- The main aspect of the dean’s conference room of the UP Faculty of Pharmacy was to have a multifunctional space - said dr. Norbert Vasváry-Nádor, associate professor at the UP Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, based on whose plans the Dean’s Office, the offices, and the abovementioned conference room were built.
As he said, the main function of the bright, spacious conference room with modern design is to provide a suitable venue for the joint discussions and meetings of the organizational units. In addition, the large, open space can also function as a kind of community space; it can also be a venue for lectures and workshops.
Dr. Norbert Vasváry-Nádor added that the prestigious headroom is divided by a wall covering, which has more than just a decorative purpose: it improves the acoustics of the prestigious space. The furniture was also selected for the multifunctional nature of the conference room. The conference table is not a single piece of static furniture: it can be assembled from several tables; it can comfortably accommodate almost 30 people in its total size. The tables can be moved and varied freely, so the large conference table can be disassembled into smaller “islands” at any time, as desired, according to the needs that arise.
The renovation of the K building is not over yet: plans include the transformation of the attic into a student community and learning space and the external renovation of the building. In addition, the uniform display of community areas (corridors) and the establishment of offices for additional departments are planned, as well as the installation of a central air conditioning system.