Board member: Drama university starts academic year ‘despite disputes’

Courses are now under way at Budapest’s University of Theatre and Film Art “despite a loud minority generating disputes”, Tamás Lajos, a member of the university’s board, told public Kossuth Radio on Monday morning.

Lajos said that classes were being held “at 3-4 locations”, the fewest at the central facility in Vas Street, blockaded by teachers and students protesting against the composition of a new board. “As much as it can be called a blockade… just a few students rioting there,” he added.

Lajos insisted that

90 percent of the students had officially registered for the semester and “a large part of the teachers indicated that they would continue working”, but added that “there are some teachers that would no longer like to teach at the university”.

Lajos said that the foundation recently appointed to run the university is “not to interfere with matters of education, it is to ensure good conditions for that work; everybody should do their jobs and all will be in order,” he said.

Referring to strike preparations at the university, Lajos said that “a strike can only be directed against an employer” and noted that the board was not the employer of the university’s teachers, therefore “they cannot strike against us”.