Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban hold a press conference after their meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on Feb. 2, 2017. Xinhua/SIPA USA/Press Association. All rights reserved. If guests questioned the significance of a university to its founder, the former President and Rector of Central European University, John Shattuck, liked to remind them that unlike most human institutions, universities can boast longevity. Which significant institutions live on, he would ask, from the years of renaissance glory in Florence, Venice or Padua? Their universities. Or, to put the matter in more familiar terms, what other British corporation founded in 1421 survives and thrives 600 years on, as does King’s College Cambridge?
But after yesterday’s news from Budapest, it may be that the distinguished diplomat and former head of Harvard Library, spoke too soon.
At 12.30 yesterday lunchtime, the Hungarian parliament passed an amendment to its Education Bill which is expressly and solely intended to close the most successful university in Central and Eastern Europe.
