New details revealed about the Fudan University to be built in Budapest
Change language:
Based on the interview conducted with László Palkovics, head of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, further details have been revealed about the University of Fudan and the Student City built around it.
The Hungarian news portal Index asked László Palkovics, head of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, about the project of the Fudan University, one of the world’s best, to build a campus in Budapest by 2024.
According to the government commissioner, the Fudan project will not deprive any territory of a Student City of Budapest, as stated by the mayor of Budapest. As it was decided in 2017, the university student campus would be built in the southern Pest area, near Corvinus, ELTE TTK and BME.
According to the plans, the southern part of the land strip will belong to the dormitories; the market hall will be placed in the middle part, while the northern part of the area is planned to be covered with research institutes.
László Palkovics also added that the 100-hectare public park designed for Hungarian students will be built on the other side, in Csepel.
The government commissioner also revealed that the Fudan project started on a Hungarian initiative. Other foreign universities have been contacted based on the higher education strategy in 2014, as well. Within the framework of which, besides providing Hungarian university students with the opportunity to study abroad and return with international knowledge, another important strategy was to attract as many international students as possible to Hungary. In 2014, about 5% of students, 20,000 – 22,000 were foreigners, today that number is around 37,000. The third goal was to attract foreign institutes to Hungary, so for example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s leading technical universities, to Debrecen.
The interview also revealed that part of the investment area is privately owned, but the territory is also owned by the capital, the state, and the district. If the 9th district of Budapest decides not to sell the plot, new plans will need to be carried out. However, according to László Palkovics,
it is also an advantage for the district that a new university would be built with dormitories in one of the most destroyed rust areas of Budapest.