Before Arrival

For the best results, you are advised to follow the procedures in the order shown below. 

1. Completing the data sheet called ELTE Faculty of Economics Incoming Application Form as part of the application process in order to facilitate communication with ELTE GTK’s International Office. By submitting your personal details (including your contact email address) and information on your educational background (e.g. the name of the ELTE host faculty), the International Office will be able to contact you and your host (ELTE) faculty coordinator if any queries arise.

2. Activation of student status/Semester registration: Some ELTE faculties do this for their incoming students but, if necessary, students can also do it for themselves in the Neptun system. (Administration > Enrolment/Registration). Active student status is required, among other things, for course registration. You are advised to seek the advice of your host faculty coordinator regarding this matter.

3. Generating your institutional email address, otherwise called “IIG”. While some faculties at ELTE may not require the use of the IIG, it is essential at the Faculty of Economics as it provides access to various platforms and sources of information, including the timetable, midterm schedule, informational documents on the start of the semester, course registration, exam registration, as well as WIFI on GTK’s and ELTE's premises, etc.  You can create your IIG one or two days after activating your semester and you are advised to do so already before arrival. Detailed instructions are available on the university website/IT support. 

4. Course registration: students from other ELTE faculties can register for any courses offered by the Faculty of Economics during the first-come-first-served course registration period (dates are announced under “Time plan of studies at the university” on the Q-tér website). The information below will assist you with registration but detailed guidelines on the GTK registration process are available here. 

• GTK’s course list is accessible in two places: on the Faculty webpage and in Neptun, where you can double check the specifics of the courses (including weekly hours, credits, course content, etc.) offered in a given semester. Registration for the chosen courses, however, takes place on a different page in Neptun (Subjects > Register for subjects) and is only feasible after activating your semester in Neptun. 
• Timetable: Before deciding to register for a course, most students want and need to visit the timetable to decide if the timing of the chosen course(s) is compatible with their host faculty’s timetable. Most faculties disclose their timetable in Neptun. GTK’s timetable, however, is not available there but is accessible with your IIG (institutional email address, see also above) via the website, under Current students/Timetable. When considering GTK’s courses, it is vital to remember that the timetable is not a weekly but a modular and dynamic one, which means that classes do not follow one another at regular intervals and changes may occur during the teaching period as well. Once you have chosen your GTK course(s), you are advised to personalise your timetable on the inform.gtk.elte.hu platform and to check it on a regular basis. Should any changes in the schedule occur during the semester, you will always find the most up-to-date version of the schedule under the above link. The screen in the corridor leading to Building Q and several screens in Building P always display the daily schedule of classes.  It should be noted that most classes are 90 minutes long and attendance is highly recommended. If any GTK classes, on occasion, clash with those at your host family, you can watch the recordings of the lectures at the GTK Video Library during your booked slot. 
• Registration: students from other faculties can only register for a course offered by the Faculty if there are free places on it. You are, therefore, advised to carefully check the three numbers displayed for each course in the Neptun system: one for the total number of places on a given course, one for the places already taken, and one for the number of students on the waiting list. If there are free places, incoming students from other faculties are welcome to register.  
• Demand for GTK’s English-language courses is very high, therefore students can only be guaranteed a place on a course if it is in their Standard Curriculum for the given semester. Regrettably, others, including students from other faculties, cannot be guaranteed a place. To have a fair chance to study your intended course, you are advised to register for it as early as possible after the start of the first-come-first-served registration period and to revisit Neptun regularly as changes in the number of places offered in any course may occur during the registration period. If  your home institution requires that you take a certain course at the Faculty of Economics (e.g. if you are doing a double degree is law and economics) and there are no free places on the given GTK course, you have two options: either you can seek the teacher’s approval based on your home university requirements and then send a request to GTK’s International Office together with the teacher’s email, or choose a different course of the same credit value that you  like and your home institution approves.
• If, despite all efforts, you cannot register for a chosen course, you have one week after the start of the teaching period to register for another course of the same credit value taught in English at ELTE GTK and you will also be able to modify your course list in the “During the mobility” document during this initial period of the semester. Should this be necessary, remember to contact your home and host coordinators, too.
• Certain courses have prerequisite subjects, which are also shown in the course list on the website. Long-term students must complete these courses before studying the course with the prerequisite. As far as Erasmus+/guest students are concerned, the expectation is to have some previous acquaintance with the knowledge area rather than the completion of a particular course at their home university. Prior familiarity with the field is preferred because it will enable you to understand and learn new information more effectively, and to perform better in the assessment scheme.
• Students must register for BOTH a lecture AND a seminar in any given course to earn a grade. 
• Lectures and seminars are offered in pairs. By default, there is one lecture and one or more seminar groups offered in every course. However, in certain high-demand courses, GTK may offer two or even three lectures and their corresponding seminars, which may be held by the same or different instructors. In such cases, it is of utmost importance that you register for the lecture-seminar pair (indicated by the same last letter in the course code explained in Section  “How to read the course codes” in the document “Information on course registration”) to avoid clashes in the timetable, the midterm schedule, and to be able to collect points in short in-class quizzes and other activities, which will give you an opportunity to complete the course with an offered grade. (This link provides details on the assessment scheme and on how to earn a grade at the Faculty.) 

AFTER ARRIVAL

1. GTK info sessions for Erasmus+/guest students: While the administrative duties of Erasmus+ and guest students from other ELTE faculties are arranged at their host faculty, it is of particular importance that those who are planning to study some courses at the Faculty of Economics attend the information sessions for incoming students at the beginning of their semester in Budapest. The International Office uses these sessions to share vital Faculty-specific details concerning courses, attendance, assessments, schedules, and other study-related matters with its new students.

All the details (venue, timing, etc.) regarding these sessions are shared in writing with students who have supplied their contact address through the ELTE Faculty of Economics Incoming Application Form data sheet (see also above). You can also approach your host faculty coordinators for the details of these session. Lastly, the events are also announced on the GTK website, under the section “Enrolment”, a short time before the start of the semester.

2. Erasmus+ and guest students studying courses at the Faculty of Economics will find comprehensive information on study-related matters on the Current Students and the Studies pages of the Faculty website. After the start of the semester (and if you have shared your Neptun code with us via the above mentioned data sheet), you will also have access to GTK’s fact-filled Moodle page dedicated to international students. If any questions remain unanswered after attending the info session and carefully reading the website/Moodle, you can approach the Faculty of Economics International Office with specific questions at incoming@gtk.elte.hu. Other contact opportunities and directions are found on the website/Contact.