Is proposed EU legislation enough to stem creeping threats to scientific freedom in Europe?
New Year’s Day 2019 was a troubling watershed moment for European academia. It marked the first time a university was forced out of an EU country, after Hungary’s nationalist government revoked the ability of the Budapest-based Central European University to accept new students onto its degree programmes.
Liviu Matei, provost of CEU at the time, tells Research Europe that the convulsive event was “indicative [of] what I call the crisis of academic freedom in Europe”. The university was forced to move to Vienna, Austria, where it remains to this day.