For the university, see Central European University (Nonprofit)

Central European University Budapest Foundation (CEUBF) operates as the host of Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. It determines the budget and provides for the educational, research and general operations of the university. The foundation also maintains CEU’s public utility reports and ensures that the university operates according to Hungarian law.^{[1] [2]}

Background

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros founded CEUBF from his Open Society Fund in 1991. CEUBF then, from a legal standpoint, created CEU.^[3]  Soros established the university, like his foundations, to spread his ideology through Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism.^[4] The three tenets on which the university focused were “democratic politics, constitutionalism, and non-command economics.”^[5] CEU formerly operated in Prague, but moved permanently to Budapest in 1993.^[6] Soros hoped to create the university with “three legs,” with campuses at Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest, but this plan never materialized.^[7] CEUBF maintains the university jointly with the Central European University Foundation, based in New York.^[8]

Soros’s priorities have received criticism because CEU, which operates only as a graduate school, heavily favors the social sciences and does not offer degrees in “hard” sciences like engineering or chemistry.^[9]

Relocation to Austria

On December 3rd, 2018, CEU president Michael Ignatieff announced that the University will relocate its U.S. accredited degree programs from Budapest to Vienna, Austria.^[10] After the Hungarian government passed a higher education law in April 2017 specifically to curtail the influence of Soros-funded social institutions, the government has the legal right to deny any inter-government proposal within its own boarders.^[11] CEU’s decision to leave Hungary concludes 18 months of negotiations between the University and the Hungarian government, after it was certain that the government has chosen to deny permission for the foreign school to enroll students within the country. ^[12]

Funding

Throughout CEU’s existence, Soros has donated $20 million yearly to fund its operations. In 2001, he replaced his yearly contribution with a $250 million grant.^[13] He donated $202 million more in 2005 after the Hungarian government granted CEU accreditation, which brought the university’s endowment to $476 million.^[14] CEUBF maintains this endowment and allocates $20 million from it per year for university operations and additional training seminars such as international summer schools.^{[15] [16]}