“It is deeply disturbing that in 2018, less than three decades after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Central European University (CEU) is being forced to flee Hungary.
A thriving and independent system of higher education is vital to the health of any flourishing democracy. The actions leading up to CEU’s decision to relocate from Budapest to Vienna are greatly troubling. They gut the concept of academic freedom and deprive students and scholars from engaging in a vigorous and productive exchange of ideas.
We stand with CEU and the rest of the European higher education community, and we call on the government of Hungary to reconsider its stance and show that it understands and embraces the essential concepts of academic freedom and intellectual integrity.”