News

« back to home « previous news item | next news item »

At its meeting on 23 April 2026, the Faculty Council of the University of Pécs Medical School elected Professor András Komócsi as dean with 83 supporting votes, succeeding Professor Miklós Nyitrai from 1 July. Professor András Komócsi, a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology, served as Vice-Rector for Research during the University’s previous rectoral term. We spoke with him about his plans and objectives.

Written by Rita Schweier

– Were you primarily motivated to apply for the dean’s position by the experience you gained as Vice-Rector for Research over the past few years, or rather by the decades you have spent at the Medical School as a researcher, teacher and clinician?

– Definitely the latter. This school is an integral part of my life, so it felt natural to contribute to its operation and to the work of the community here. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to serve in many different roles and at different levels, which allowed me to gain insight into the diversity of this large school. I have seen how certain fields could be improved and shaped, and I have experienced the results of those efforts firsthand, which has given me strong confirmation, many rewarding experiences and, above all, the motivation to take on a leading role in these processes as dean.

– As a clinician, making such a decision must have been particularly difficult, although I assume that working as vice-rector you also had less direct contact with patients than before.

– It was certainly not an easy decision since being an internist and cardiologist is an important part of my identity. Alongside my responsibilities as dean, I intend to remain active in clinical medicine, both in patient care and in medical education. I do not want to be a clinician and a dean, I want to remain a practising clinician as dean, which means that I want to organise my schedule and tasks in a way that allows my clinical work to remain an integral part of my activities. During my time as vice-rector, I established a routine that included operating theatre and outpatient clinic days, and teaching, although that position did not always allow for precise planning. As dean, I hope this will be easier to achieve and my tasks and schedule will be more predictable, enabling me to manage them more consciously and effectively.

– I am sure your predecessor, Professor Miklós Nyitrai, gave you plenty of guidance during the lengthy handover process.

– We had regular discussions even during his previous term as dean, and over time these became more frequent, then I also got more involved in the dean’s work so that I could develop a genuine understanding of the school’s operational processes. Dean Nyitrai’s work left a profound mark on the school. He conveyed many important messages to me, but perhaps the one that impressed me most was his community-centred approach: he viewed the school not simply as an educational institution, but as a network of creative communities built on dialogue and collaboration. I learned a great deal from him in this respect as well. This will be one of the guiding principles along which I am planning my work in the next four years.

– In your application, you refer to the school's strategic plan, PotePillars, stating that your goal is to further develop, deepen and expand the institutional operation that has already begun based on the plan. You also write that the Medical School in Pécs is not facing a forced renewal but is continuing along a consciously planned path of development. Meaning that you are not planning any major reforms.

– I have never been an advocate of great revolutions or reforms. One of the key insights of 21^st-century management is that organisations must engage in planned and continuous internal renewal if they are to remain viable, agile and successful due to the constantly changing environment. In this process, the school is not merely an organisational structure but a community that must respond to both external and internal changes. If it functions well, it becomes less of a teaching organisation and much more of a learning organisation, to which PotePillars provides valuable guidance in this respect, as it aligns both the available tools and their application with clearly defined objectives. The strategy outlines an operational framework that sets the direction while ensuring the dynamic development of our school.

– The four pillars of PotePillars—learning culture, built environment, science and innovation, and well-being—provide useful reference points for understanding what you mean by this planned and continuous internal renewal. You were personally involved in developing the learning culture concept, and you also conducted research on educational development at Harvard University. In your application, you write that the current frontal teaching and discipline-centred model of education should evolve towards a competency-based approach, and that the structure of the basic modules should be redesigned to better support effective learning methods.

– The elements and examples presented in my application are not only observable at the world’s leading medical schools, but they have, in many cases, been part of their educational traditions for decades. The educational system currently characterising the Medical School in Pécs has likewise developed through respected traditions, evolving over more than a century, however, it is still largely based on the classical model of knowledge transmission, whereas internationally the approach has shifted towards problem-based teaching. We must recognise that it is impossible to teach or learn the entirety of the medical profession during the six years of undergraduate medical education, that is precisely why lifelong learning has become so important. The challenges facing undergraduate medical education have also changed. We can no longer expect freshly graduated doctors to know everything when they receive their diplomas, but we can expect that they possess the competencies—including those connected to learning—that will enable them to continue developing throughout their professional careers. In a disciplinary system, memorising vast amounts of information seems to be the efficient, comfortable and quick way to succeed academically for most students, yet this often proves inadequate later, once they enter clinical practice. Before reaching that stage, they need to acquire such learning methods and strategies that help them answer the practical questions arising from real-life patient care. The shortcomings of the training in this regard leave both freshly graduated doctors and the experienced colleagues supervising them dissatisfied. Our students also lack sufficient first-hand clinical experience and do not yet have the perspective needed to distinguish between the relative importance of different elements of the curriculum in a way that supports competent application. Strengthening this early clinical phase will therefore become a key competency-building component in the curriculum.

– Do you consider the current student-to-teacher ratio adequate for maintaining high-quality medical education?

– We are a large medical school. To put this into perspective, the first-year class at Harvard is half the size of the number of students who graduate from our general medicine programme. The depth and quality of education we are able to provide depend not only on the number of teachers but also on our infrastructure. Even within the current system, the number of students, which has remained relatively stable and grown moderately over recent years, places considerable demands on our resources. There were some changes in the composition of the student body and within our language programmes, though these have not been particularly significant. I believe that medical education in Pécs remains viable with the current number of students. Around half of our teachers are working at the school, while the other half teach at the clinics. For the latter group, large student numbers can cause difficulties, while teaching in itself can also become a burden alongside the clinical duties. At the same time, it is important to recognise that the success of bedside seminars depends far less on whether there are five or seven students in the group than on whether those sessions provide students with genuine clinical insight and meaningful learning experiences.

– How do you see the international reputation of medical education in Pécs?

– Our school is not only one of the defining bases of medical education in Hungary but has also maintained a strong presence on the international education market for decades, where our position is well-established, but it would be a mistake to become complacent and regard this as an achievement. It is not enough simply to maintain our presence and perform well; we must continue to improve, closely follow international trends, and continuously adapt our educational programmes to meet these trends.

– In your application, in connection with the built environment pillar, you write that the future lies in creating an inspiring and collaborative environment. What do you mean by that?

– One of the greatest strengths of our school’s management has been that its development has never been driven by spontaneous ideas, but by a carefully considered and well-developed concept that has guided our progress. Fortunately, many of those plans have resulted in completed investments. This is the approach we intend to continue following over the next four years. I am optimistic that, alongside the developments that have so far been financed largely from the school’s resources, new opportunities for externally funded projects will become available again, which could help us create an even more inspiring environment. We know that the places where we work and study have a significant impact on both our attitude and the quality of our work. Fortunately, the school already has several spaces that actively support this process.

– The science and innovation pillar of PotePillars covers an area which you also oversaw at the university-level from your time as Vice-Rector for Research. Are you satisfied with the school's performance in this respect?

– Yes. Over the past eight to ten years, the school’s scientific performance has improved remarkably, and today the Medical School in Pécs holds a well-established position within the Hungarian scientific arena. Maintaining that position depends to a large extent on motivational factors, particularly given the limited public application opportunities available in recent years. It is also important to recognise that many of our most significant scientific achievements are driven by our PhD students, whose enthusiasm deserves greater recognition if we want these positive trends to continue in the years ahead.

– This is why the annual Celebration of Teachers and Authors, recognising the school's high achievers, was introduced a few years ago.

– Absolutely, these are highly motivating, lovely and important occasions because they highlight that we have colleagues whose outstanding work enriches our community. Publicly recognising their achievements is essential, since otherwise those accomplishments could easily fade from memory over time. These events also provide an opportunity for us to come together and reflect on everything we have achieved during the previous year.

– So, we can expect that the colourful owl trophies and shields remain a cherished tradition.

– Definitely, since I am an enthusiastic owl collector myself. I look back rather sadly on the years when I did not receive any owls, and unfortunately it seems that this year will be one of those as well.

– In his closing interview, Professor Miklós Nyitrai said that the well-being pillar of PotePillars is particularly important in terms of the school’s development and the achievement of its goals because if students and staff members feel well, the tasks are completed more quickly and more effectively. In recent years, the school has developed a system supporting both physical and mental well-being. How do you see this pillar’s future?

– I believe the future of this field is not simply about maintaining the existing programmes but about integrating well-being even more deeply into the school’s everyday operation. One of the important achievements of recent years has been that supporting physical and mental health has moved beyond occasional initiatives and become an integral part of the school’s strategic thinking. I consider this valuable, and I would like to build on it. To me, well-being is not an “additional field”, it is one of the prerequisites for a well-functioning organisation. When students and staff members work and study in an environment characterised by trust, a sense of belonging, and both mental and physical support, the benefits are reflected not only in their well-being but also in their performance and willingness to collaborate. It can also become a powerful factor in retaining talented people.

– In your application, you write that one of the key issues facing 21^st-century medical education is this: how do we train doctors who possess a high level of knowledge, sound clinical judgement, and a responsible, collaborative professional attitude, enabling them to perform effectively in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment? You identify three key elements in the answer: knowledge, thinking and humanity. What does it mean?

– This approach is based on identifying the systemic challenges facing our medical education. One of these is the crisis of information credibility brought about by the tsunami of information we live with. This is neither a new phenomenon nor something specific to artificial intelligence, since “Dr. Google” has been with us for more than a decade. One of the key responsibilities of medical education is to help students navigate this environment and provide them with the tools to assess and apply information appropriately in clinical practice—that is what I mean by “knowledge”.

We have already touched on the issue of thinking when discussing real clinical situations, where we often see that knowledge acquired through laborious memorisation alone proves insufficient. By “thinking”, I mean teaching clinical reasoning, which is the ability to interpret and weigh clinical information, and translate it into clinical decisions based on the acquired knowledge.

The image of the physician as the sole authority on knowledge and the central figure directing and shaping everything around them has been outdated since the Second World War. In the 21^st century, the role of the physician has changed fundamentally, and today, doctors work as members of multidisciplinary teams and collaborate closely with professionals from other fields. The emphasis has shifted towards a more collaborative and dialogue-based model of medicine, in which effective communication and genuine human connection are of paramount importance, which is especially true at a time when personal interaction is increasingly being displaced by machines, automation and online systems—that is what I mean by “humanity”.

– You intend to achieve your goals through a competency-based curriculum, modern assessment methods, and data-driven management. We have already discussed the planned changes to the curriculum and to teaching and learning methodologies. What do you mean by modern assessment methods, and by data-driven management?

– Once we have identified the problems we are facing, it is important to define objectives that represent the kind of ideal state we want to achieve. Once these objectives have been set, we can decide on the actions that are most likely to help us reach them, and the final step is to evaluate how effective those actions have been and whether they have actually enabled us to achieve our goals. Modern assessment methods, together with data-driven management, provide an appropriate framework for a large proportion of the faculty’s processes, and it can also prove valuable in areas where, at first glance, this might not seem to be the most effective method.

– Who will be the vice-deans supporting your work?

– Of the three traditional vice-dean positions, Professor Dóra Reglődi will continue to oversee the scientific field, education will be the responsibility of Associate Professor Árpád Csathó, who played a key role in developing the learning culture concept, and the general affairs will belong to Professor Péter Than, Chair of the German Programme Committee, reflecting the importance of the international character of our education. Associate Professor Péter Maróti will also play an important role as dean’s commissioner, supporting my work in the areas of digitalisation and innovation.

– What would you like the Medical School in Pécs to look like four years from now?

– I would like to see a school that has a strong and credible international presence in both education and research, and one that represents genuine excellence in medical education as well as in medicine. It is important to me not only that we do our work well, but that we are also able to make those achievements visible. I would like us to be recognised as a medical school about which people tell with appreciation: this is an outstanding place. Last but certainly not least, to borrow the words of my predecessor, I would also like us to walk through these doors each day with joy and pride.

Photos:

Dávid Verébi