Students from 21 Hungarian universities excluded from Erasmus?

Balázs Hankó, the minister for culture and innovation, has called for a solution ensuring that Hungarian universities take their rightful place in Erasmus and Horizon Europe programmes before the end of the year.

Students from 21 Hungarian universities out of the Erasmus programme

According to the Telex, students from 21 Hungarian universities, operating as foundation-run universities, cannot go to Erasmus due to a European Council decision excluding such universities because of the lack of transparency. The exclusion also affects the Horizon university teacher-mobility programme. The loss is already euro millions even if the government promises to secure the needed funds from the taxpayers’ money. The programme’s name is Pannónia. However, Hankó said before that they would like to reach a compromise with the EC.

Meanwhile, the European Commission clearly explained to the Hungarian government what Budapest should do to return to the program, Balázs Ujvári, a spokesman of the EC, told Telex. The Tempus Public Foundation organising the Erasmus program in Hungary, said the Hungarian universities are not out of the program since they can host foreign students. However, they did not answer whether students from the 21 foundation-run universities can go abroad with an Erasmus scholarship.

The University of Debrecen. One of the 21 universities affected by the ban. Photo: FB

We listed the 21 universities affected by the EU ban in THIS article.

Does the European Commission have disagreements with the university senates?

Hankó held talks with Nicolas Schmit, the European commissioner for jobs and social rights, and Iliana Ivanova, the commissioner for education and research, in Brussels on Thursday on “ending the exclusion of Hungarian universities, students and researchers from these programmes”.

He noted that the Hungarian government has launched the Pannónia programme aimed at promoting mobility and international relations, adding that at the same time Hungary was entitled to the university and innovation funds linked to the Erasmus and Horizon schemes.

He said the Hungarian government submitted a bill to the European Commission last November with the aim of resolving the problems in a timely fashion, but had yet to receive a reply from the executive body.

The minister said he has invited the commissioners to Hungary so that they themselves could ask questions of the Hungarian university community. He said the government regulation on universities run by foundation had the backing of 80% of the university senates, adding that he had told the commissioners that “Brussels’s disagreement isn’t with the government, but actually with the autonomous senates.”

Hungarian model a viable solution

Meanwhile, Hankó addressed a European Research Area conference on innovation and competitiveness where he called for a turnaround in European competitiveness. The minister said the “Hungarian model” was a viable solution for this, pointing out that Hungary has tripled its innovation spending since 2010 and doubled the number of PhD students and the number of developers and researchers working at companies.

MCC serves the cause of the Hungarian nation, says Balázs Orbán

The Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) serves the cause of the Hungarian nation and strives to preserve Hungarian values, Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director and the chairman of the MCC’s board of trustees, said at the opening ceremony of the academic year in Budapest late on Thursday. Students graduating from the MCC would be better served by Hungarian interests than by any globalist ideology, he said.

He said critics of the MCC, who saw the institution as an “illiberal school”, scorned its international presence in high-quality forums and its decent scholarships for students and researchers studying abroad. He said Central European University (CEU) academics of the “Soros school” looked down on the MCC “because it is successful” and it accepted an ever greater number of students year after year and engaged in more and more international partnerships.

MCC, he added, had become recognised internationally and known as an institution that fostered talent on national, patriotic foundations. Orbán said attacks should not be taken lightly, saying that “Soros and his network” questioned the MCC’S goals, adding that the university and its students “must defend themselves against attacks”.

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