Education matters

The Hungarian government this month took control of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its network of some 40 research instituions.  The government says that it wants to make research more innovative, but the move has prompted international outcry and raised concerns about academic freedom in Hungary.  Nature magazine reports.

This month also saw the Central European University (CEU) receive its Austrian accreditation. “CEU is an excellent enrichment for Austria as a location for science,” said Iris Rauskala, Austria’s Minister for Education and Research.  The CEU’s move to Vienna from Budapest was prompted by the Hungarian government’s refusal to renew its accreditation.  Some time ago The New York Review of Books wrote in a backgrounder on the saga that, “for the first time in Europe since World War II, a university will have been closed for political reasons.”

And the Oxford and Cambridge Society in Poland felt it necessary to survey what it calls the “Educational Consultancy market” in Poland, wherein aspiring students and their parents often engage gobetweens to advise on securing places at universities.  The practice is unregulated, lacks transparency and is devoid of contractual obligations.  Read the survey here.