With the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest: scientific cooperation and solidarity
The CEU was founded in 1991 in a context marked by the political and economic transitions underway in the countries of the region: the aim was to set up a training and research establishment dedicated to the study of the changes brought about by the collapse of communism and the advent of liberal democracy, and to contribute to the training of guarantors of "good governance, sustainable development and social transformation".
Over the years, CEU has expanded its fields of study from the regional to the international level, with a particular focus on democracy and human rights worldwide. Its 300 teaching and research staff develop an international perspective, emphasizing comparative and interdisciplinary research.
The CEU has trained nearly 17,000 students since its inception, and enjoys a high level of scientific prestige in the humanities and social sciences. Today, it has over 1,800 students (up to and including doctorates) from around 100 countries. The majority of these students receive grants to cover all or part of their daily living expenses, thanks to a 400 million euro endowment from the university's co-founder, George Soros - born György Schwartz in Budapest in 1930.
CEU (www.ceu.edu) is organized on the "model" of American universities, and is based on a charter from the Council of the University of the State of New York. In the USA, it is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Association of Universities. In Hungary, it has been officially recognized as a private university by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee for almost twenty-five years (since 2004).
But in March 2017, Prime Minister Viktor Orban published a bill to correct alleged "irregularities" in the operation of CEU and other foreign institutions based in Hungary. According to him, these institutions work "without a Hungarian partner" and award "diplomas that are not recognized in Hungary". As the months went by, the Hungarian government became increasingly forceful in expressing its desire to reject institutions that did not offer similar courses in their home countries: "Several foreign universities are in breach of the rules, including Soros University." This bill is immediately denounced as "discriminatory" by the CEU, which constantly stresses that it works within the framework of OECD rules.
On April 9, 2017, a new law known as the "Universities Act" is promulgated after a vote by the Hungarian Parliament: amending the 2011 higher education legislation, this text notably provides for no longer accrediting foreign educational institutes that do not have a campus in their country of origin.
On the same day, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Budapest in solidarity with the CEU[1]. Students from over six hundred universities around the world also expressed their support. A vast mobilization movement is launched in academic circles; more than nine hundred academics from all over the world, including eighteen Nobel Prize winners, sign a petition demanding the withdrawal of this law.
The US State Department also expresses its "deep concern[2]".
On September 12, 2017, the European Parliament denounced the "systemic threat" to European Union values in Hungary and, on the basis of Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, decided by a large majority[3] to activate a rare "infringement" procedure that could lead to unprecedented sanctions against Hungary: the European Parliament thus uses its right of initiative to ask the Council to pronounce on the state of the rule of law in a member country. "France welcomes the European Parliament's position," says the Elysée, explicitly approving this "very strong signal".
This procedure is still underway.
This procedure is still ongoing.
In August 2018, the American authorities sent the Budapest government a lengthy official note of information on the educational activities now conducted by CEU on their territory. Sociologist Eva Fodor, CEU's Vice-Rector, points out that CEU "did exactly what we needed to do to comply with the new legislation before the deadline, which was set for the end of the year. If on January 1, 2019, we still haven't received our accreditation, then we won't be able to organize the recruitment of new students for the start of the new school year[4]". According to Michael Ignatieff, the former leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, who was appointed rector of CEU in 2016, "this would be the first time since 1945 that a European state has taken it upon itself to destroy a university[5]".
However, the official news came at the very beginning of December 2018: CEU has been refused accreditation by the Hungarian Ministry of Higher Education. It will no longer be able to award US degrees in Hungary, and will therefore no longer be able to welcome new students in international courses leading to degrees that would be awarded by the USA. In addition to international programs, other fields of study have been hit by the same measure: "gender studies" and gypsy studies, in particular.
Thus cornered, the CEU management signed an agreement with the city of Vienna to open a branch there. The Budapest campus, however, continues to operate for Hungarian degrees, as well as for students already on international courses.
The CEU currently has over a hundred Erasmus partnerships and 3 Erasmus Mundus.
In addition to Mrs Agnès Leyrer, director of the IR department at CEU, Anne Grynberg met with several teacher-researchers with whom cooperation projects have been considered.
A framework agreement is currently in the process of being signed, following validation by Inalco's International Relations Committee and ratification by the Board of Directors
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Professor Alexandre Astrov, Director of the Department of International Relations, has proposed that Inalco join an Erasmus Mundus that would also include SOAS, Stockholm University, the University of Bologna (John Hopkins) and Bard College (New York State).
At present, CEU's IR department focuses its teaching on the theory of international relations and its realities in Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, however, many students - whether or not they originate from these parts of the world - have shown a growing interest in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In the absence of a sufficient number of teacher-researchers specializing in these fields, the heads of the IR department and the CEU management would like to take the necessary steps to organize a course leading to a joint degree under the Erasmus Mundus framework, which could offer an excellent solution. The idea is to set up a consortium of European and two American universities and design a program enabling students to specialize in different fields and modes of expertise. This could be both a research master's degree and a professional diploma leading to the various international professions.
CEU plans to submit its application in February 2020. If the project is successful, it will benefit from substantial financial support from the European Union.
Discussions are continuing between CEU and Inalco (in particular, but not only, with the heads of the "Métiers de l'international" stream), and this cooperation looks promising and stimulating. At its meeting on February 19, 2019, the International Relations Committee, to which the written version of this Erasmus Mundus project had been submitted, expressed its keen interest in Inalco joining this curriculum as a "full partner".
Mr Balacz Trencsenyi, Carsten Wilke and Victor Karady, respectively director and teachers of the History Department, have also drawn up an Erasmus Mundus project in which they would like to include Inalco, alongside the universities of Brussels (ULB), Lisbon, Uppsala, Basel, Florence, Bologna, Tokyo and other institutions in Germany and Turkey. Entitled "History and the Public Sphere", this Master's degree course is designed to explore the representation(s) of history in the public sphere, through museums, memorials, diverse - and sometimes contradictory or even competing - memorial narratives, visual media and so on. The questioning is defined from a national, regional and transnational perspective.
CEU's Department of History has decided to apply in 2019. Inalco's International Relations Committee has found the project very interesting, but feels that time is short to implement a semester-long teaching program as early as next academic year, so would prefer to have the status of "associate partner", which implies a lesser investment while enabling us to offer interested students a month of lectures and visits on the selected themes.
Professors Carsten Wilke and Andras Kovacs, heads of the Department of Religious Anthropology Studies (which includes, among other things, a very active Center for Jewish Studies), are very keen to welcome English-speaking lecturers from Inalco who could speak on Asia and Africa in particular.
Several joint symposium projects are also under consideration. The proposed themes will of course be brought to the attention of Itinéraires readers as soon as they are specified. All suggestions are welcome.
At a time when the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - a scientific research institute founded in 1825 and in some ways comparable to the CNRS - is also affected by a recent government reform that deprives it of its financial autonomy and places it under the direct control of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology[6], it seems essential that Inalco should firmly express its solidarity in defense of the fundamental freedoms of Hungarian academic circles and intellectuals, over and above the indisputable interest of the scientific cooperation projects underway.
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[1] Cf. "Hongrie : importante manifestation de soutien à l'université Soros à Budapest", Le Monde, April 9, 2017.
[2] "The United States is concerned about legislation proposed by the Government of Hungary on March 28th that imposes new, targeted, and onerous regulatory requirements on foreign universities. If adopted, these changes would negatively affect or even lead to the closure of Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.CEU is a premier academic institution accredited in the United States and Hungary, with staff and students from over 100 countries. It has strengthened Hungary's influence and leadership in the region through its academic excellence and many contributions to independent, critical thinking.We urge the Government of Hungary to avoid taking any legislative action that would compromise CEU's operations or independence." www.state.gov.
[3] 448 votes in favor, 197 against, 48 abstentions, a 2/3 majority of votes cast being required. Cf. "EU values: the European Parliament launches proceedings against Hungary", Sud-Ouest, September 12, 2018.
[4] "À Budapest, l'Université d'Europe centrale fait de la résistance", Le Monde / M Campus, October 9, 2018.
[5] "Viktor Orban hunts down Soros University in Budapest", La Croix, December 4, 2018; "L'Université d'Europe centrale poussée à l'exil", Courrier International, December 6, 2018.
[6] Cf. the appeal launched by historian Balázs Ablonczy and the list of supporters on the Academy's website: www.mta.hu.