Soros-backed university partly moving from Hungary to Austria

Central European University said Thursday it will move its US-accredited programs from Hungary’s capital Budapest to the Austrian capital of Vienna because of uncertainty over its academic freedom, AP reported. The university, which was founded in 1991 by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, has said for months that it has complied with new requirements for it to remain in Budapest. However, the university says it has been kept in “legal limbo” by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has refused to sign an agreement needed for CEU to remain in Hungary. “The Hungarian authorities have indicated that they would not sign the New York State agreement,” the university said on Thursday in a statement. “All attempts to find a solution that would enable CEU to remain as a US degree-granting institution in Budapest have failed.”