EU funds 8 March 2023, 3:57pm

Hungarian academics chastise public interest trust regime

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There is now a growing confrontation not only between the European Commission and the Hungarian government, but also between the rectors of universities managed to public interest trusts and academic researchers. The Hungarian Academy Staff Forum (HASF) strongly criticises the open letter rectors sent to Brussels in which they defend the model change carried out in higher education.

The HASF said it is tragicomic that the 21 rectors at the helm of universities managed by public interest trusts attempted to portray the negotiations with the European Union as a matter of honour. The HASF has always taken the view that restructuring universities under foundations, the privatisation of public assets, is fundamentally flawed and violates the autonomy and interests of higher education, and we have drawn the attention of those concerned to this, the grassroots movement of academic research staff writes in an open letter.

On Monday, the heads of 21 Hungarian higher education institutions sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which they wrote that they consider unacceptable the exclusion of 182,000 students and 18.000 teachers from Erasmus+, Horizon Europe and other EU-funded programmes. The rectors demand an immediate resolution of the situation.

This comes after the European Council decided, on a proposal from the European Commission, in the rule of law conditionality mechanism, to introduce a commitment ban for public interest trusts until the government resolves conflict of interest rules for the boards of trustees of the universities operating in this model. In practice, this means that EU institutions will not be allowed to contract with universities and research institutes managed by the foundations.

The European Commission's main problem is that high-ranking politicians and people linked to the government or the ruling Fidesz party sit on the boards of trustees that govern the institutions. The Orbán government has so far committed to applying a conflict of interest criterion to ministers and state secretaries, while Brussels has made it clear that this will not suffice.

The European Commission (EC) is reported asking for more: MPs, civil servants and members of the various regulatory authorities should also leave the governing bodies, except for mayors,

The rectors wrote in their open letter on Monday - which has not been published elsewhere, only in press reports with a couple of quotes - that they believe that "in recent years, the autonomy of teaching and research at our universities has been secured and Hungarian universities have become more competitive in the new model".

The HASF said

the current state of affairs and the path that led here is a despicable and daunting travesty of university autonomy.

They go on to say that "it is also the firm position of the HASF that no senate, rector or student government can renounce a centuries-old tradition of university autonomy, just as no country that has fallen into dictatorship renounces the right to emerge from oppression and become a free and prosperous nation again.

"This situation is indeed very serious for the international reputation of Hungarian higher education and research. However, the government is clearly responsible for this, as it has been deliberately and consciously destroying the organisational and institutional system of Hungarian science step by step for a decade."

According to HASF, the departure of Central European University (CEU), the change in the composition of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee (MAB), the detachment of the research network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE) case have already damaged the international image of Hungarian research institutions and universities, which the foundation system has only further eroded.

According to the HASF, the current state of affairs and the way forward is a despicable and despairing parody of university autonomy. The government has used the state of emergency, which was declared because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been maintained unjustifiably since then, to abolish the autonomy of universities on the sly, to turn public property into private property, cynically, ostensibly on the basis of a decision offered to universities, but in reality with promises and threats.

"So the rectors should first and foremost reproach their own government, but so far they have remained silent, as they have been at every step since the introduction of the chancellorship system. Of course, it would be naïve to expect the rectors' body to take action to solve the real problems after the rapid restructuring of the university system," they say.

Therefore, the Academy Staff Forum calls on the rectors who wrote the letter to "hold the real culprit, the Hungarian government, accountable for the situation that has emerged, or to make the only fair decision and resign in protest, not to add to the shame that has befallen Hungarian higher education through their silence and sometimes active collaboration."

Another round of negotiations between the EU and the government will take place on Wednesday, when Regional Development Minister Tibor Navracsics will meet Johannes Hahn, the European Commissioner for Budget and Administration.