Government Aims to Have at Least One Hungarian University in the World’s Top 100

The Universities 2030 program has been launched, aiming to have at least one Hungarian university among the world’s top 100 universities and several Hungarian universities among Europe’s top 100 universities in five years’ time, Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, said at the “HU-rizont 2025 – Hungarian universities at the forefront” briefing on Monday, reports Magyar Nemzet.

“Stanford, Singapore, Cambridge, Semmelweis, MATE, Szeged, Debrecen, Óbuda: we want international university rankings to look like this by 2030, and this is why we are launching the Universities 2030 program,” Balázs Hankó emphasized. “The universities I have just listed are collaborating with the best universities in North America, Europe, and Asia in the HU-rizont program. We have supported thirty projects in which Hungarian universities are consortium leaders and are conducting excellent research in the fields of health, robotics, informatics, and environmental sustainability, which are of priority to the Hungarian people,” he added.

Hankó stressed that Hungary has achieved a competitive turnaround in universities and research and development, and it is time for the European Union to take notice. This turnaround is badly needed in the EU, because we are now seeing our continent fall from 95% to 80% of the US productivity efficiency, and only four of the top fifty technology companies are based in the EU, he detailed. Nor can the EU be proud of its scientific performance, which is only 18% of what it was a decade ago, down from 25%, the Minister added.

Instead of talking about improving competitiveness in Brussels, they are worrying about how they can harm Hungarian students and researchers by excluding them from international cooperation,”

he argued.

The minister stressed that the Hungarian government’s task is to protect Hungarian researchers and students. This is why a law was passed last year to settle all disputes regarding the EU ban on Hungarians participating in the Erasmus and Horizon exchange programs, but this was not enough for Brussels. “They want to introduce a system of dictates that could be called a political vendetta, since in their last resolution of December 16 last year they demanded that rectors and professors be excluded from the boards of trustees that run universities, and they also want to determine how long a rector can run a university, with retroactive effect,” Mr. Hankó stated. He added that now the EU also wants to introduce a conflict of interest in relation to national and political affiliation.

Brussels wants to create a conflict of interest on the grounds of patriotism, which we cannot allow because we are committed to the success of Hungarian researchers and students,”

he emphasized.

He pointed out that the Hungarian government decided to build on last year’s successes by launching the HU-rizont program again this year, with eight billion forints (20.1 million euros) in non-refundable grants between 100 and 400 million forints (251,000-1,000,000 million euros) and a consortium led by Hungarian universities. The government is ready to give even more than the envisaged eight billion to a good project, he added.

The minister also announced that applications from two universities in the regions beyond the country’s borders are expected: from the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (Romania) and the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College for Higher Education in Berehove (Ukraine). “We would like Sapientia to be among the top ten Romanian universities in Transylvania and the Berehove institution to be among the top five private universities in Ukraine,” emphasized Hankó.

Via Magyar Nemzet, Featured photo via Pixabay