Opposition party slams government support of the Chinese Fudan University in Budapest
The opposition Jobbik party on Saturday slammed the government for funding the Budapest branch of China’s Fudan University with 821 million forints (EUR 2.2m), and called for the support of modern, autonomous Hungarian universities instead.
Party lawmaker Koloman Brenner told an online press conference that “turning a Chinese university loose in Hungarian higher education” and allocating it special government funding was a “new level in [ruling] Fidesz’s anti-knowledge and anti-intellectual politics”.
H insisted that the university’s high international ranking was “because academic freedom was not among the indicators of such lists”.
Brenner said Jobbik agreed with the government that Hungary should nurture its ties with China, in cooperation with other European Union countries. However,
H insisted that the university’s high international ranking was “because academic freedom was not among the indicators of such lists”.
Brenner said Jobbik agreed with the government that Hungary should nurture its ties with China, in cooperation with other European Union countries. However,
they protest against the operation of a university in the country that is “controlled directly by the Chinese Communist Party”,
he said. The government should support modern Hungarian universities rather than Chinese ones, he said.
- Fudan University, one of the world’s best, to build a campus in Budapest by 2024
- Hungary, China to cooperate on establishment of Fudan Hungary University in Budapest
- Hungarian government to locate the Chinese Fudan University in a new student city
As we reported before,
The Budapest campus of Fudan University
can be located in the southern part of the capital, near Nagyvásártelep.
Opposite the new Athletic Centre, on the other side of the Kvassay Bridge, the first European campus of Fudan University in China could be built. On the other hand, it is not yet clear which property(s) the Chinese university will receive for the development from the plots bordered by the former Nagyvásártelep, Kvassay Jenő Street, and Ráckevei Danube Branch.
In any case, the plots will be purchased by the government for Fudan University’s entry into Europe, for hundreds of millions of forints – Népszava wrote in January. According to the rather vague government decision at the end of December, “the government agrees to acquire ownership of the properties needed to house Fudan University for the benefit of the state,” mfor.hu noted a few days ago. According to the Hungarian daily, they have probably
already found the ideal property, as they determined exactly how much they would spend on the transaction.
According to the government decision, HUF 821 million (€2.3 million) will be provided from the Hungarian budget for the purchase of selected properties. Incidentally, there are several properties in the vast area that the state has not yet been able to purchase. Népszava has now revealed that the selected property is located in the South Pest area designated for the implementation of the governmental development,
formerly referred to as the Olympic Village and later as the “Budapest Student City – Southern City Gate.”
The cited annexe of the 2018 Act marked in the above-mentioned government decision also names the area bordered by the Ráckevei (Soroksári) Danube Branch – Kvassay Jenő Street – Soroksári Street – Galvani Street line, where a new city quarter is to be built, with a dormitory for about 8,500 people, as well as buildings for sports and recreation and other related infrastructural functions, under the name Budapest Diákváros (Budapest Student City).
Source: MTI
It is not 821 million HUF. It is about 500 *billion* HUF (1670 million USD).