Soros university says it plans stay in Hungary
BUDAPEST - Hungary's Central European University, founded by US financier George Soros, said on Tuesday it would recruit students as normal for the 2019-2020 academic year, and demanded the Hungarian government recognise it complied with Hungarian law.
CEU, which offers graduate-level courses taught in English and is frequently ranked as the top university in Hungary, has been under fire from the Hungarian government, which has said it has operated without full legal compliance.
Hungary's nationalist government has made the demonisation of Hungarian-born financier Soros, who promotes liberal causes though his charities, into a central plank of the country's ruling right-wing ideology.
CEU is based in Budapest but originally accredited in New York State. A change to Hungarian education law last year, widely seen as explicitly targeting CEU, withdrew permission to operate from foreign-registered universities that do not also offer courses in their home country.
The prospect that the university could be driven from Hungary drew street protests and international criticism.
CEU says it has satisfied the Hungarian requirement that it offer courses at home through a programme of teaching jointly with Bard College in New York State's Hudson Valley.
