Program: “180 perc” (“180 minutes”)
Media outlet: Hungarian National Radio’s Kossuth Channel
Date: June 15, 2011
Interviewer: Balazs Naray
Balazs Naray
The university officially recognized both in Hungary and the United States is now 20 years old. Speaking in numbers, this equals almost 10,000 alumni from all over the world. John Shattuck has been leading the university for two years as President and Rector. He is talking about the past, the present, and the future.
John Shattuck
The reason for CEU’s founding was that there were really at that time no institutions for graduate study in the fields of the social sciences and the humanities, as many of those fields had not really been supported by the old, communist regime. After that, in the first 10 years, from a regional university we became more international.
Balazs Naray
Can we say that in the beginning most of the students were Hungarian in order to educate new professionals for the new area?
John Shattuck
Yes, that’s definitely the reason. The students were coming from not only Hungary but from countries throughout Central Europe. The aim was to develop adequate experts in business, law, and public policy for the period following the transition. Afterwards, of course, education has also changed at other universities that are also teaching in these areas.
Balazs Naray
As the President and Rector of the university, what is your perception—what is the motivation for all these students who come from all over the world? Why do they find this Budapest-based university attractive?
John Shattuck
First of all, Budapest is a very beautiful city and today in particular, the weather is also beautiful. Also, it is a crossroads city. It is not only in Central Europe; in many respects it is the capital of the region. At the same time, it is accessible to the east, close to Istanbul, Moscow, and to other big cities of the east. Therefore, we attract students who are interested in Europe. We are a university that has its roots in America, Europe, and Hungary.
Balazs Naray
Can we also say that it is also a cultural meeting point? If there are 25 students in a classroom from 25 different countries, then it is really an exchange of cultures.
John Shattuck
We like to think of this as a laboratory of international education, and a chance for the representatives of different cultures to exchange information. I believe that students learn as much from each other as from their professors and that the professors learn a lot from their students.
Balazs Naray
You’ve mentioned recently that the university would like to help the work of the government with background scientific work.
John Shattuck
Yes, we were very pleased to work with the Hungarian government during the Hungarian EU Presidency. We organized several conferences and seminars, particularly in the field of environmental protection. The State Secretary of this field, Zoltan Illes, is also our faculty member. We also worked together with Janos Martonyi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, on a conference about EU enlargement and the union’s relations to the Balkans.
Balazs Naray
When mentioning cooperation, we can think of a dependent or independent institution.
John Shattuck
Yes. Our university is an independent institution. Even if it is accredited as a Hungarian university, apart from three PhD scholarships, we do not receive funding either from Hungary or the United States. In this sense, we are independent. However, we would like to work closely with the government and support its work with information that might be useful.
Balazs Naray
What are your plans for the future? Is it to operate as before, or do you have any new plans and ideas?
John Shattuck
We have a lot of new plans and ideas that we’re already implementing. We’re building a new campus here on Nador Street—we are renovating two old buildings. Our new School of Public Policy and International Affairs will start in September. As a new field, we will start teaching cognitive science, which, briefly, is the study of how infants at a very early age begin to familiarize themselves with the world—how it forms part of their thinking. The other is network science, which combines mathematics, physics, and new networks of communications that exist today: the Internet and all the other very interesting new media phenomena that we have in the world.
“180 perc” is a 180-minute morning program on the Hungarian National Radio’s Kossuth Channel. It is the channel’s most popular program with over a million listeners each day. Topics include actualities from politics to culture and arts.