Central European University – Hungarian Government’s continued harassment
24 October 2018
As already reported on several occasions, the Hungarian Government continues to find ways in which to make life unbearable for higher education institutions in general and the Central European University (CEU) in particular. Since the start of 2017, the Hungarian Government has done its utmost to prove that the CEU is illegal in Hungary in spite of a clear statement from earlier governments to the contrary. You may all remember the exchange of support letters in the spring of 2017 and the letter of support and criticism sent by the Executive Board to the Hungarian Government, including the Prime Minister. The CEU also obtained the support of the European Commission with vice-president Timmermans stating in no uncertain terms that European values were under threat.
We reported earlier at the end of September on a new type of harassment invented by the Hungarian Government, and now there are additional problems for the CEU:
Since “Lex CEU” (April 2017), CEU has worked to find a solution that would guarantee its academic freedom. The State of New York successfully negotiated an agreement with Hungary allowing CEU to retain its American accreditation. This means that the CEU is in full compliance with the conditions required by the government – and now the Hungarian Government is not willing to sign the agreement presented to them by the American ambassador. No arguments, they are just not signing.
The result of this is that the US accredited masters and doctoral programmes offered by CEU in the academic year 2018-2019 cannot legally take place in Budapest, which is why these programmes have now been transferred to the new Vienna campus.
Read the article on the CEU web site.