Budapest's Central European University (CEU), which has fought for 20 months to secure its continued presence in the Hungarian capital, is being pushed out of the country in an “arbitrary eviction” that violates academic freedom. CEU confirmed plans to open a new campus in Austria. CEU’s legal status has been in limbo for more than a year since changes were made to a higher education law, done, as critics of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government say, to deliberat

On October 25, 2018 the Board of Trustees of Central European University (CEU) announced that it will move most of its teaching to Vienna if the government of Hungary fails to remove the legal obstacles to its academic freedom. Michael Ignatieff, the President of CEU, announced that the university would stop admitting students in Budapest after failing to resolve a dispute with the government over a new law that appeared to require CEU to open a branch in the United States. C

An education program aimed at giving asylum seekers and refugees in Hungary a new start is the first casualty of the government’s most recent anti immigrant measures. This week, the Central European University (CEU) suspended its award-winning Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) program for asylum seekers and refugees, just days after a 25 percent tax on any activity supporting immigration kicked in. The program offered a free academic nondegree course for asylum seekers and ref

On April 4, 2017, the Hungarian parliament voted in favor of a government plan to regulate foreign-based universities to the degree that might lead to the closure of Central European University (CEU). As we have previously reported, last week, Zoltán Balog, the Minister of Human Resources, submitted a bill to parliament based on claims of “irregularities” found in the operation of foreign-based universities. While it is not specifically named, it has been widely noted that th

Central European University (CEU) expresses its opposition to proposed amendments to Act CCIV of 2011 on National Higher Education, tabled in Hungarian Parliament today. After careful legal study, CEU has concluded that these amendments would make it impossible for the university to continue its operations as an institution of higher education in Budapest, CEU's home for 25 years. CEU is in full conformity with Hungarian law. The proposed legislation targets CEU directly and