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turbinetree

(24,632 posts)
Sat Nov 16, 2019, 08:25 PM Nov 2019

Classes move to Vienna as Hungary makes rare decision to oust university

CEU opens Austria campus as Orbán’s government strips it of ability to issue US degrees

A trumpet fanfare, a wine reception and celebratory speeches, but alongside it all, an undertone of melancholy: the opening of Central European University’s Vienna campus on Friday also marked the first time for decades that a university has been forced out of a European country.

CEU, founded by the billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros in 1991, has provided free or cheap English-language graduate education in Budapest to thousands of students from eastern Europe and beyond, and is regarded as one of the best universities in the region.

But the Hungarian government has revoked CEU’s ability to issue US-accredited degrees in the country, leading to the exodus to Vienna. The university fell victim to a sustained campaign against Soros by Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has painted the Hungarian-born Soros as the mastermind of a plan to destroy Europe with liberal values and increased migration.

“There’s no other university in Europe or the US that has been forced out on the political whim of a leader,” said CEU’s rector, Michael Ignatieff, in an interview prior to the ceremony. He said the lack of support from Donald Trump’s administration for a US institution under attack abroad could have serious consequences for US universities across the globe.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/16/ceu-classes-move-to-vienna-orban-hungary-ousts-university

And then the country has a trump appointed ambassador that shouldn't be in charge of toothpaste sitting over there....................


And I just wonder what the Hungarians think that not to far back in there collective past they had communists doing the same thing as this Orban character now running the country and he is a fan favorite of Putin.................



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