Ideology and Competition Key Issues Around Fudan University Budapest
The ideological impact of Fudan University’s Budapest campus, as well as its potential to overpower Hungarian universities, are both key issues in Hungary’s current discourse. While the Trade Union Association of Intellectuals (ÉSZT) warns about Hungarian universities falling into Fudan’s shadow, Minister of National Innovation and Technology László Palkovics says that the Chinese state-run university can only benefit Hungary.
Academic Union Warns of Fudan’s Power
The Confederation of Unions of Professionals (ÉSZT) emphasized that the media has been focusing little on the effect a Chinese state-run university with an overabundance of funding and a determination to access the European intellectual and economic market will have on Hungarian universities, many which are currently being redeveloped into private foundation-run models.
The clash between the plans for construction of Fudan University’s Budapest campus and the IX District’s Student City Program has caused a conflict of interest between the Hungarian Fidesz-led government and Budapest’s opposition-led municipality. A number of developments have led to the Chinese state university being planned to replace the northern portion of the Student City. Opposition leaders are unhappy with what they consider to be an intrusion on the original plans for Ferencváros.
Budapest Mayor Does Not Support Fudan
Budapest mayor and co-leader of leftist green party Párbeszéd Gergely Karácsony stated last Monday that his administration is prepared to cancel 2023’s World Athletics Championships, set to be held in Budapest, if the planned Student City is not built in its entirety.