Jobbik promises review of transferring universities to foundations if in govt

The opposition conservative Jobbik party has vowed to conduct review the transfer of Hungarian universities to foundations if it enters government.

As we wrote on Monday, Gödöllő’s Szent István University of agriculture will be taken over by a foundation on February 1, government says. Read details HERE.

Jobbik lawmaker Koloman Brenner told an online press conference on Facebook on Wednesday that his party did not object to the principle running universities differently to the state model, but it disagreed with the practice of stripping teachers and students of their decision-making powers and handing them to supervisory boards. He said universities had enjoyed autonomy “ever since the middle ages”.

He said Jobbik supported academic freedom and the autonomy of universities, and proposed reducing the “outstandingly high” administrative burdens placed on lecturers, reducing the weekly number of classes and setting up of an independent ministry of education.

Koloman called on ruling Fidesz to stop policies “hostile to knowledge and the intelligentsia”,

to provide more resources for teachers’ wages and student benefits, and spend more on halls of residents and other infrastructure developments.

Read alsoSZFE leadership: Classes may resume as of Feb. 1