Orban opens new public-service university building at Ludovika

Budapest, March 31 (MTI) – The reconstructed wing of the former military academy Ludovika building in Budapest will serve as a good base for the National University of Public Service which will relocate there, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the inauguration today.

He called the renovation a “historic obligation” and said that the strong state his government started to build in 2010 would be able to act quickly and in unison. No country can survive without a modern and effective public administration, he said.

The new public-services university is a flagship institution of Hungarian higher education where all professors and students serve their country, Orban said.

Up until communism in Hungary the Academy was a high-prestige institution of Hungarian military higher education “whose name was one with patriotic education and Hungarian virtues in the same way as the National Theatre was one with Hungarian culture,” Orban said.

He said that his government had founded three universities during its terms in 1998-2002 and 2010-2014: the Andrassy [German-language] university, the Sapientia University [in Transylvania, Romania] and the University of Public Service.

The Ludovika building cost 4.7 billion forints (EUR 15.31m) to renovate and the university offices, library and international institute will move in this year.

The Royal Hungarian Ludovika Defense Academy was a pre-1945 training centre for officers. Its building was designed by Mihaly Pollack in 1836 and it is surrounded by the Ludovika Gardens.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters