Exiled University Draws Parallels Between Hungarian and U.S. Academic Pressures

Housed in a former bank building far from Vienna’s grand palaces and opera venues, Central European University now operates in exile.

Founded by George Soros, the university once symbolized academic revival in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. However, less than ten years after Hungary’s right-wing government compelled its relocation from Budapest, voices at the institution caution that similar tactics are emerging in the United States to curb elite universities.

“It feels as though our pleas are falling on deaf ears,” said Sepphora Llanes, a graduate student from Colorado.

Yet, there are those who are listening.

With the U.S. administration intensifying its scrutiny of higher education institutions, many academics both in America and Vienna see echoes of a strategy perfected by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. His government used state authority to intimidate a disfavored university, disrupt academic independence, and consolidate ideological control.

“On a fundamental level, the methods are strikingly similar,” noted Carsten Q. Schneider, a German scholar with over two decades at Central European University and the incoming interim president and rector.