A Shower of Awards at the PROFFORMANCE Higher Education Excellence Ceremony

2025.06.04.

Lecturers from the Institute for Disability and Social Participation and the Institute for General Special Needs Education, namely Borbála Bányai, Csilla Cserti-Szauer, András Futár, Veronika Kalász, Vanda Katona, Michael Ochieng' Otieno, Lizanka Oravecz, Anikó Sándor and Emese Zagyi, have won second prize in the Inclusion and Diversity category of the PROFFORMANCE international call for institutions of higher education, with their joint project titled “We Teach Together!”, a participatory method in higher education.

The PROFFORMANCE International Higher Education Teacher Award recognises and celebrates excellence in higher education across four areas: digitalisation, internationalisation, sustainability, and inclusion & diversity. The award ceremony took place on the 4th of June, 2025.

We are pleased to share that, following the evaluation of 161 applications from six countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia), Eötvös Loránd University achieved second place in the institutional applications category.

The “We Teach Together!” participatory higher education method was also awarded second prize in the Inclusion and Diversity category. Previously registered as ELTE know-how and winner of the Award for the International Development of Higher Education in 2017, this method is grounded in the principle of Nothing about us without us. It ensures the active involvement of persons with disabilities in higher education as equal co-educators. In addition to sharing their personal experiences and perspectives, this approach empowers them to contribute directly to the shaping of university curricula.

This method offers a valuable, empowering opportunity for educators with disabilities, while also enriching students’ learning experiences. It strengthens their professional identity and confidence in working alongside people with disabilities.

We also extend our congratulations to our colleagues at ELTE Faculty of Informatics for winning third place in the Internationalisation category with their INNOSOCIAL project, and to the CERL for CSR project of Corvinus University of Budapest, which was awarded the prize for the best Hungarian application and secured second place in the Sustainability category.