The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Hungarian Regional Science Association (HRSA) was held in Veszprém on 30–31 October 2025, co-organized with the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Pannonia. The conference featured three plenary sessions and 33 thematic sessions, with several hundred presenters from Hungary and abroad.
Partium Christian University was represented by Dr. Ferenc Szilágyi, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, who delivered two talks. The first, entitled “Regional Centers and Income Polarization in Partium,” examined income patterns within Partium’s settlement network and the spatial structuring role of regional centers—in particular, Oradea. The findings underscored the importance of deliberately strengthening central cities to support the region’s convergence.
The second presentation, “The Impact of Schengen Accession on the Population of the Hungarian–Romanian Border Region,” summarized the anticipated demographic and spatial-structural effects of easing the border-crossing regime. Emphasis was placed on the intensification of cross-border mobility and commuting, as well as the strengthening role of settlements functioning as gateway cities.
PKE’s professional presence aligns with the University’s mission: to present research results on the socio-economic dynamics of Partium in a national scholarly forum and to broaden domestic collaborations. The positive reception of the presentations reaffirmed the relevance of Partium-related topics within the discourse of regional science.
