The bill was already sent to the European Commission last November.Continue reading
The government would amend the law on public interest foundations to allow model universities to access the Erasmus+ and Horizon programs, according to a draft amendment to the law published by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, writes Világgazdaság. Secretary of State Veronika Varga-Bajusz confirmed that this is necessary because the measure adopted by the European Commission affects all higher education institutions maintained by trusts, and all their students.
In 2021, the government adopted a proposal to change the model of higher education institutions. This means that the majority of universities are no longer state-run, as before, but the rights of founders and maintainers are transferred to trusts set up specifically for this purpose. With this measure, the government aimed to ensure the efficiency of Hungarian universities and to expand academic freedom.
Last year, the European Commission made a decision that Hungarian universities that operate as public trust foundations or are maintained by such foundations will no longer receive grants from the EU-funded Erasmus+ exchange and Horizon Europe research and innovation programs. The universities were targeted on the grounds of concerns about the rule of law. In addition, another problem mentioned was that in many universities, government politicians sit on the board of trustees. In February 2023, the government called for the resignation of these government officials to resolve the situation, but the legislation was left untouched. The conflict of interest rules have remained unchanged and are still unacceptable to the European Commission.
Veronika Varga-Bajusz noted that the ministry had not received a response from the European Commission to a regulatory proposal sent by the ministry in November last year, hence they thought that after a legislative period had passed without any results, they would not wait any longer and would like to put an end to the matter in this autumn’s session.
The European Commission must act to resolve the issue by the end of the year,
she stressed, and called the Commission’s decision two years ago absolutely discriminatory.
The State Secretary also spoke about the changes in the new amendment. These include the fixed term of trusteeship, which the proposal caps at six years, in the context of the funding agreements of the model universities that have been replaced.
Under the bill, university foundations will no longer be allowed to have trustees or supervisory board members, including:
If a person has held any of these offices but has resigned or his term of office has expired, he may only be a trustee or a member of the supervisory board of a university foundation after one year. Conflicts of interest are also checked by the State Audit Office of Hungary.
Varga-Bajusz also spoke about the Pannonia Scholarship Program launched by the government to replace the Erasmus program. She described reports that the program is not yet very popular with students as a sham:
the Pannonia program has so far attracted around 5,000 people a year, with an expected 3,000 in the first half of the year, of which 800 are already abroad, and a further 1,500-2,000 applications are pending,
she noted.
She added: “The Pannonia program is a new feature that allows students to go to any university in the world, not just in Europe, and guarantees full recognition of credits earned at the sending university.”
Via Világgazdaság; Featured image via Facebook/Semmelweis Egyetem