Our Mission and History

Founded in 1994, the Budapest campus of McDaniel College reflected McDaniel College alumnus George Varga’s dream of adding a liberal arts presence to the rich higher education landscape of his native Hungary. Since then, the campus has grown to offer a full four-year Bachelor’s Degree program aiming to deliver the best in U.S. higher learning amid the international vitality of Budapest.

From its founding in the U.S. state of Maryland in 1867, McDaniel College has aimed to foster a diverse student-centered community committed to excellence, seeking opportunities for global learning and engagement. With careful mentoring and attention to the individual, McDaniel changes lives. We challenge students to develop their unique potentials with reason, imagination, and human concern. Through flexible academic programs, collaborative and experiential learning, and global engagement, McDaniel prepares students for successful lives of leadership, service, and social responsibility.

McDaniel College strives to place students at the center of a humane environment so that they may see and work toward their personal goals while respecting others and sharing the responsibility for the common good. We believe that liberally educated men and women think and act critically, creatively, and humanely. They take charge of their lives and develop their unique potentials with reason, imagination, and human concern. They take their place in the global community, understanding their responsibilities to aid individuals and to contribute to the larger society.

McDaniel College accepts the challenge to provide an academic and social environment that promotes intellectual, personal, and professional learning and growth. McDaniel College works to live out these First Principles to support our vision of our college community.

• We provide a foundation of knowledge about the past and present so that students may be informed about the world.
• We provide various approaches to knowledge and personal achievement so that students can think critically about, respond creatively to, and form sensitive, intelligent decisions concerning the world and its future.
• We provide instruction in fundamental skills so that students can express themselves for their own satisfaction and to the larger community.
• We provide solid and respected professional programs for the committed student, and, more important, we provide a liberal arts education as an integral part of professional training so that students will be more flexible, more successful, and happier in the world of work.

McDaniel College is proud to have a campus in Budapest, the capital of Hungary and a city internationally renown for its history, arts, and culture. We seek to bring all students, from Hungary, from other countries in Europe, from the United States, and from all over the world, into touch with the intellectual and cultural opportunities Budapest has to offer.