ALLEA stands with the Central European University
ALLEA sends letter of support for Central European University in light of proposed legislative changes in Hungary.
“We consider the proposed legislation a fundamental threat to basic and internationally valid principles for conducting science and research”, states ALLEA President Professor Günter Stock in a letter addressed to the Hungarian Minister for Human Capacities, Mr Zoltán Balog. With the letter, ALLEA joins a multitude of scientific institutions from Hungary and all over the world in voicing grave concerns regarding the proposed change in legislation of Act CCIV of 2011 on National Higher Education of the Hungarian Government which would deprive the Central European University (CEU) of itsability to operate according to fundamental scientific principles such as academic freedom, scientific excellence and self-governance. CEU is a Budapest-based prestigious US-Hungarian private university with international reputation which just recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
“We consider the proposed legislation a fundamental threat to basic and internationally valid principles for conducting science and research”
ALLEA President, Günter Stock
The Hungarian National Assembly deliberates on the legislative proposal on Tuesday 4 April 2017. In case of its passing it would eventually lead to a forced discontinuation of CEU’s activities in its present form in Hungary. An official CEU statement calls the proposed legislation “discriminatory and unacceptable”. The amendments would prevent CEU to operate as a “free and independent international graduate university”. The CEU President urged the Hungarian government “to enter into negotiationswith us to find a satisfactory way forward that allows CEU to continue in Budapest and to maintain the academic freedoms essential to its operation”.
CEU has started a petition directed to the Hungarian National Assembly and Government which in the past few days was signed by almost 40.000 individuals. The petition calls on the Hungarian National Assembly to “drop the proposed legislation and to enter into negotiations with the leadership of CEU that will ultimately allow this prestigious university to remain a proud contributor to scientific discourse in Hungary”.
Click here to read ALLEA’s letter.
Click here to join the petition.
To read further and updated information and to learn how to support CEU via social media support please click here.
