Hungary passes laws targeting Central European University
In spite of the many samples of support to the Central European University, the Hungarian government approved last Tuesday, April 4, a proposal to modify the CCIV law of 2011 of National Higher Education, which among other things will oblige foreign universities who operate in Hungary, to have a campus in the country where they are based and which will not allow free recruitment of academic staff from outside the EU.
Many former students, institutions and academic groups, including Princeton University, University of Oxford among others, and even the US State Department warned the Hungarian government their reluctances against this initiave.
The Central European University (CEU) was founded in 1991 by Hungarian billionaire and philanthropist George Soros in response to the fall of the Soviet Union and with the intention of providing higher education to the Anglo-Saxon style to graduates of the new democratic states of Central and Eastern Europe. In its 25 years of uninterrupted operation, more than 13,000 students from 130 countries have graduated from their classrooms.