Mgr. Branislav Gröhling, the Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, visited TUKE as a part of his business trip to Košice on 15 May 2020. Taking into account the coronavirus pandemic and him only being in office for two months – the visit of the Minister belongs to the exceptional ones. a joint discussion with members of the university management was opened by the Rector prof. Stanislav Kmeť, who briefly introduced the University and its development priorities for the coming period. At the same time, he discussed topical issues that TUKE deals with and considers important also from the point of view of development of higher education in Slovakia.

The Minister expressed his confidence that incentive steps to improve the quality of higher education institutions will also emerge from resolutions of the Slovak Rectors´ Conference, thus directing the further necessary steps of the Ministry. During the discussion, a request to dust off the support of university science parks, which irreplaceably connect the industry and universities in joint research and subsequent transfer of technology into real practice, was made by the University.

The final part of the visit program was a presentation of products and prototypes, which are developed by the University to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Universal lung ventilation, which is being prepared for clinical testing, was presented for the first time. Prof. Jozef Živčák, the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, also presented the permanent respirators, which are currently undergoing certification testing and will be manufactured for the purposes of the State Material Reserves of the SR. Last but not least, the Minister was shown protective shields, which were produced at TUKE (more than 4,500 pieces) for medical facilities throughout Slovakia.