Rural development training is currently available only in the agricultural field in Hungary, despite the fact that it had a strong tradition in the economic field in the past, in regional science training programmes. The background to this was the so-called "mainstreaming" of development policy, which sought to transfer all direct rural development measures from the EU's cohesion policy to the Common Agricultural Policy from 2007, only to start the process of reintegration again from 2014, at least in terms of funding. Unfortunately, there was no sign of this in higher education. Moreover, in the current economic environment, the market is in much greater need of generalists in development policy than of specialists in rural development in the agricultural field, which could allow the development of a new degree course that would provide a 'frontier' rural development training programme closer to regional science training programmes, taking into account the broadest possible sustainability criteria. This is precisely what the Department of Regional Science and Rural Development, to be established at the Faculty of Albert Kázmér Mosonmagyaróvár of the Széchenyi István University from 01.08.2022, intends to attempt to do, and it will define its research portfolio in this spirit, in addition to its teaching.