‘Academic Huxit.’ Hungarian researchers speak out on impact of EU ban

Hungarian academics have spoken out about the negative impact of the EU ruling that bans 30 of the country’s research institutions from accessing Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ funds, with one saying it felt similar to the UK leaving the EU in terms of cutting off links. 

“The exclusion from EU-funded programmes was like an atomic bomb for Hungary’s higher education sector,” said Gergely Kováts, director of the Center for International Higher Education Studies at Corvinus University of Budapest, one of the universities affected by the ban. 

Following the 2022 ruling, the Hungarian government set up substitute national programmes similar to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, and encouraged the country’s researchers to collaborate with partners outside the EU. 

At one research institute, staff were encouraged to co-author publications with researchers from Kazakhstan or Mongolia, “or, anywhere other than in the EU,” Kováts said. 

This led some in the country to frame the ban as being like a “Huxit” for Hungary’s academic sector, a reference to the term Brexit used to describe the UK’s exit from the EU.

“If you cannot work with others to submit new applications or do the research together, you just naturally become more marginalised,” Kováts said. 

The ban was brought in due to the government restructuring many academic and scientific institutions to turn them into public trust foundations, with board members strongly linked to the government given lifelong mandates and significant decision-making powers with little oversight. The EU deemed that this undermined academic freedom and transparency, leading to a ban in 2022.  

Despite several rounds of negotiations between the EU and the Hungarian government, led by Viktor Orbán, no solution was found and neither side wanted to compromise, leading to a stalemate. 

But the election of Péter Magyar last month has reignited hope in Hungary’s academic community that the situation will finally be resolved, especially with Magyar’s Tisza party explicitly stating its intention to overhaul the foundation models and reintegrate with the EU programmes. 

Whole community affected by ban

Even with renewed hope for a resolution, Hungary’s researchers have been badly affected by the ban. 

According to Kováts, the full impact will not be known until more data is available, but his impression is that it has led to missed opportunities for Hungarian researchers and connections being lost.

“A lot of people have had difficulties,” he said. “Even those not working for the [foundation model] universities have been affected because European partners are not sure which universities are implicated in the ban. The international partners have been afraid that their grant submissions will be weakened by having a Hungarian partner on it.”

Ágnes Szunomár, an associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest and head of the Institute of Global Studies, said that she has lost collaboration opportunities because of the ban. 

She was contacted by a consortium setting up to apply for an EU grant that was specifically looking for someone from central and eastern Europe with her expertise on China. Szunomár made some contributions to the proposal, but then the consortium realised that Corvinus University was one of the banned institutions and withdrew the collaboration offer. 

“They decided not to include me because they were worried it would weaken their application,” she said. “And actually, I agree that it would, but it’s frustrating because I already gave some input and then I miss out on a chance to be a part of the project.”

She says she has heard similar stories from her colleagues, and that it is even harder for young researchers who haven’t yet had the time to build their own networks. 

“The worst thing is that if you have done something wrong, you have to pay the price, and you have to dedicate a few years until your own individual reputation is built up again. But here, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't commit any type of mistake, and yet we now have to clear our reputation ourselves. That’s the most difficult thing,” she said. “I am one of the victims of this decision.”

György Lengyel, professor emeritus at Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies, said that social sciences have been particularly badly affected by the ban. He has been involved in European projects for decades through several Framework Programmes, but has not been involved again since a Horizon 2020 project ended. “It became harder and harder to find partners,” he said. 

The government did introduce national funding that would financially support Hungarian institutions participating in EU projects, but it was not guaranteed, especially in the field of social sciences, and this uncertainty left many consortia unwilling to involve a Hungarian partner. 

“Social sciences in Hungary were anyway in a critical situation with a lack of public funding,” Lengyel said. “My colleagues have told me that there have been years where only one or very few projects would get funding, which is practically nothing.”

Magyar, Hungary’s prime minister elect, this week gave a speech at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences promising to restore Hungary’s institutions to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+. He also stressed the importance of science and social sciences. 

He slated the outgoing government’s record, saying it “treated the scientific community as an enemy, not a partner.”

Blame game

While Kováts has more mixed feelings on whether the EU was right to implement the ban, Szunomár is staunchly against it, despite understanding the concerns about the governance structure of the foundation universities. 

“I’ve never been a supporter of the [Orbán] government, but I do not agree with the EU’s decision because it punishes those who are not at fault for what is happening,” she said.

“I know that there is a good reason that some of the EU funds are not flowing right now to Hungary, but this one feels mismanaged. I am sure that it was more political, and I am sure that they didn't think over whom it would actually impact, the students, the researchers, who have nothing to do with politics,” she went on. 

Kováts ultimately agrees with the ban because of the potential for boards of trustees of the public trust foundations to abuse their power, but said that the EU likely also brought it in to apply more pressure to the Hungarian government. The EU has blocked nearly €17 billion of funds flowing to Hungary due to wider concerns about corruption, rule-of-law and anti-LGBTIQ concerns. 

Instead of making sincere efforts to have the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ ban lifted, the Hungarian government “explicitly politicised it because they could use the ban to fuel their anti-Brussels narrative, to mobilise their supporters and maintain power,” Kováts said. “And that also contributed to the stalemate situation.”

Untangling the situation will not be easy

Kováts expects significant changes to the governance of the 30 affected research institutions in the coming months, following Magyar’s appointment on May 9, with the prime minister elect eager to unlock EU funds. 

But it will not be simple. One option is just to abandon the foundation model and return Hungarian universities to the traditional public institute model in place before.

It might also be possible to restructure the foundations to be compatible with the EU’s requirements. This could be done by changing some critical elements, such as the accountability of the board, the composition of the board, the powers of the board, the powers of the senate and the selection of board members. Other EU countries have foundation models at universities, but the boards of trustees are far more limited in their power. 

“My personal opinion is that the foundation model can be repaired,” Kováts said. “I don't think that going back to making the universities a public institution in the way they were before is necessarily the right move. It makes their operation less flexible, and would mean the institutions are once again subject to government budgetary cycles and planning.”

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Lengyel is cautiously optimistic that the situation will be resolved, but said it would take the scientific community coming together constructively to agree on the best way forward. “Meeting the criteria the EU has set in the case of the [banned] universities is of vital importance,” he said. 

And not just for Hungary. “It’s also important for the European community, because Hungary is an important point of comparison, particularly in terms of social sciences,” he added.

Szunomár, like Lengyel, is hopeful, but says it will take time for collaborations to go back to normal. “I am going to two conferences in June and July, and it would be very nice to go knowing that I can represent myself as a member of a full-fledged university in terms of EU applications,” she said.