RED-SPINEL - Episode 8: Making sense of the Threats weighing on Academic Freedom in Hungary Today

András Léderer from the Helsinki Committee interviews both Orsolya Vincze - a lawyer at a Hungarian anti-corruption NGO, and Gergely Kovács - an associated professor at Corvinus University of Budapest

They discusses the transformation of Hungarian higher education institutions into privately owned entities managed by government-appointed boards with lifelong tenure, a process that began in 2018. These boards, which have significant control over university operations, are part of public interest trust management foundations that received substantial public assets. Concerns include reduced academic freedom, the potential creation of a parallel state, and conflicts of interest. The European Commission triggered a conditionality mechanism in September 2022 due to procurement and transparency issues, impacting EU funding and programs like Horizon and Erasmus+. Despite government commitments to address these issues, a December 2023 reassessment found no significant changes. The podcast also features insights from an attorney with a Hungarian anti-corruption watchdog and an associate professor at Northumbria University, discussing the motivations behind the transformations and the implications for academic freedom and bureaucratic versus political control.

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