by Gintarė Kubiliūtė
bernardinai.lt

The existence of the Central European University in the Hungarian capital Budapest is now under threat after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban’s government announced amendments to the education law.

The CEU was established by Hungarian Jewish businessman in 1991. It is accredited in the United States and Hungary, but only operates in Hungary. The right-wing government led by Orban wants the CEU to open a branch in New York state, and if they don’t, the university in Hungary will be shut down. Furthermore, under the new legislation the university would be forced to issue diplomas valid in the US and Hungary.

The possible new requirements by Orban’s government could be fatal to the Central European University because there is not enough funding to open a branch campus in New York state and coordination the issuing of diplomas between governments would be slow, complicated and, one can say, the university wouldn’t have very much influence on the process. Therefore the legislative amendments would make the CEU completely dependant on the Hungarian ruling party.

Full story in Lithuanian here.