Hungary’s MCC Think Tank Expands European Educational Footprint

On 19 Novem­ber 2023, Tre­ff­punkt Europa report­ed that Hun­gary’s Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium (MCC), backed by Vik­tor Orbán’s gov­ern­ment, has estab­lished a sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al net­work fund­ed by state assets worth 1.4 bil­lion euros. The arti­cle begins:

Next to the Töröc­sik Mari Park and not far from the joint cam­pus of the Hun­gar­i­an Uni­ver­si­ty of Agri­cul­ture and Life Sci­ences and Szent István Uni­ver­si­ty (SZIU) is where you will find the Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium (MCC) in Budapest. Over 7000 stu­dents attend “Vik­tor Orbán’s pet uni­ver­si­ty” (The Guardian, Great Britain) or “Orbán’s elite fac­to­ry” (Frank­furter All­ge­meine Zeitung, Ger­many) in one of the 28 loca­tions to be part of “the cadre fac­to­ry of illib­er­al­ism” (Tagesspiegel, Ger­many) and to fur­ther pro­mote the faith of “Orbánism” (STANDARD, Aus­tria). “The MCC is an edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion and research cen­ter devot­ed to the flour­ish­ing of the Hun­gar­i­an nation”, defines the MCC itself on their web­site. Although the MCC does not offer a tra­di­tion­al uni­ver­si­ty degree, it does, accord­ing to the MCC, pro­vide a com­ple­ment to Hun­gar­i­an high­er edu­ca­tion. Those who are suc­cess­ful in secur­ing a cov­et­ed schol­ar­ship place (Approx. 10 appli­cants apply to one place in Budapest) receive finan­cial sup­port to par­tic­i­pate in MCCs inter­na­tion­al network.

Read more

Key Points:

1. MCC received mas­sive state fund­ing of 1.4 bil­lion euros through shares in major Hun­gar­i­an com­pa­nies, exceed­ing annu­al high­er edu­ca­tion spending.
2. The insti­tu­tion has expand­ed inter­na­tion­al­ly, acquir­ing 90% of Vien­na’s Mod­ul Uni­ver­si­ty and estab­lish­ing part­ner­ships with pres­ti­gious Euro­pean schools.
3. Lead­er­ship main­tains close ties to Orbán’s Fidesz par­ty, with key posi­tions held by par­ty affil­i­ates and gov­ern­ment officials.
4. Employ­ees at acquired insti­tu­tions report con­cern­ing shifts toward ide­o­log­i­cal influ­ence and pres­sure to main­tain pro-gov­ern­ment polit­i­cal stances.