The Fundan University of China wants to enroll between five and six thousand master’s students in Hungary

“The first non-Chinese campus of the famous Shanghai University may open in Budapest as early as 2024,” which “is expected to revitalize the entire educational life,” reads the unnamed article from the Index.

In 2017, at the initiative of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the planning for the publication of Fudan University in Hungary began. In 2018, Viktor Orbán, while waiting in vain for a similar signature, decided “to accept the establishment of an agreement between Hungary and the People’s Republic of China to support the higher education activities of Fudan University in Hungary.” In October 2019, university leaders visited the Prime Minister at the Castle, and in December, Minister László Palkovics signed an agreement on a new campus and the ministerial statement proudly highlighted: “None of the universities under direct ministerial control in China have a foreign campus yet. “

The article cites Levente Horváth, Chief Advisor to the President of the MNB, who outlines the plans: in the next six months, double degree programs (BME, SOTE, ELTE) will be launched at other Hungarian universities besides Corvinus, and then “to 2024, where education could start in four or five faculties (economics, international relations, medicine, technical sciences) for now. Fudan University contributes its own educational knowledge to reach the 34th best place in the world ranking. The student body will be five or six thousand, the faculty 500. Initially, there will be ‘only’ a master’s degree on campus, so after graduation, during the bachelor’s degree, Hungarian students will still have time to familiarize themselves with the opportunities here. According to our plans, and the Chinese are partners in this, Fudan University professors will be “trained” in other Hungarian universities, as well as undergraduate courses, so that Hungarian students can gain experience at the University of They founded in their own university. If they think English is worth learning from the best teachers, they have their own university at their disposal, as do the Dual Degree programs created in collaboration with Fudan University. “

The Chief Counsel also hopes that “Fudan’s presence will attract large companies of Chinese and other nationalities, and together with the University they will establish their research and development centers here, thus creating a new knowledge center in Central Europe in Hungary” .

Of course, the article does not mention any problems, although there are. One is the deteriorating perception of Chinese cultural and scientific institutions: Confucius Institutes have been closed in several Western countries, for example, for national security reasons, but the US government also raises increasing questions about interests. economic and military of Chinese universities. , possibly facilitating post-intellectual espionage.

In Fudan’s case, he received a great response, including students protesting last year when the university’s letter replaced the terms free thought and democratic leadership with classic concepts of state socialism and an emphasis on the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. .

A university source spoke about a completely different kind of problem, who, due to his indirect involvement, spoke anonymously with 444 that although, according to the MNB’s senior advisor, Fudan “comes to Hungary mainly as a non-competitor”, this is difficult to interpret. There are a large number of 5 to 6 thousand master’s students in these fields, and the idea described above is that hundreds of Fudan professors would appear in BA classes at other universities and advertise their own courses there; It is difficult to imagine how this will not attract students to reduce from Hungarian formations with a limited number of resources and resources comparable to the Chinese state.