Board to Decide Future of Soros-Founded CEU in Hungary
The future of Central European University (CEU) in Hungary will be decided by the university's 13-member board, which includes George Soros and Alexander Soros, The Guardian reported. George Soros founded the university in 1991. Its interim president and rector, Carsten Q Schneider, has said that CEU does not plan a wholesale return to Budapest.
CEU teaches mostly master's and PhD students in the social sciences, law and humanities. It has more than 1,400 students from 103 countries. All of its teaching now takes place in Vienna, where the university moved its main activities from Budapest in 2019, after pressure from the government led by Viktor Orbán.
The university was also forced to stop awarding degrees in Budapest. That step followed a law that was widely seen as targeting the institution. In 2020, the EU's highest court struck down Hungary's "Lex CEU", finding that it violated the EU's charter of fundamental rights.
CEU still has 312 staff in Budapest, mostly in administrative roles, while 476 staff work in Vienna.
The political picture has shifted since then. Péter Magyar won a landslide victory in April, pledging to root out corruption and reform the state. Hungary's new government has promised to restore academic freedom, but CEU has not held formal talks with it.
Schneider said CEU is open to expanding its programmes in Budapest, provided this does not harm the student experience. He said that upgrading the university's status in the city would depend on goodwill and on funding independent of the Hungarian government.
