Chinese Campus in Hungary: an ‘Illiberal Arts’ Education

The campus is expected to be up and running by 2024. In addition to offering graduate programs in international relations, engineering, medicine and economics, Fudan University's website states that it will facilitate research and "promote high-tech innovation in Hungary". For its part, Hungary will provide land, teaching and research facilities for the new campus, as well as legal and administrative support.

The growing bilateral cooperation in education is part of a wider effort by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to cement ties with non-EU countries, including illiberal regimes. Hungary was also the first European country to participate in China's Belt and Road Initiative, and has been an enthusiastic participant since.

Bringing Fudan University to Budapest is, therefore, in line with the Hungarian government's politico-economic objectives. Government officials see Fudan University as a means to boost research, development and technological innovation in Hungary - a belief echoed in pro-government outlets like Daily News Hungary, which argues that Fudan University could be "vital for Hungary's economy".

However, there are some who suspect that Orban's illiberal tendencies also played a role in this decision. Among the most critical of the announcement has been Peter Bendek, a lecturer at Peter Pazmany University. Writing in Hungarian Spectrum, Bendek said: "After the destruction of Hungarian higher education and the suppression of the influence of the more liberal faculty, from 2024 Orban is reorganising Hungarian education and with it a significant slice of Hungarian intellectual life under another state, specifically entrusting it to China."

In his view, Fudan University's Hungarian campus will likely "help to...

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