Zsolt Enyedi, professor of the Department of Political Science and also Pro-Rector for Hungarian Affairs, was interviewed by the Hungarian television channel ATV last week about CEU's outstanding performance in the 2019 QS World University Ranking in seven fields, and he also talked about the current situation of CEU.
Although the interview is in Hungarian, you can read the English transcripts here:
"- Robert Karasz, reporter: CEU was listed as the best university of Hungary in seven academic fields and surpassed Hungarian universities in humanities and social sciences. We continue with Zsolt Enyedi, Pro-Rector for Hungarian Affairs of the expelled university, but before that we are showing a short summary.
Film: CEU was ranked 41st in the subjects of political science and international relations. The university, currently moving from Budapest to Vienna, was highly ranked in other fields: 44th in philosophy, the university’s History program ranks in the top 100, Sociology in the top 150, while its offerings in Economics and Econometrics in the top 200, together with its Law program. CEU was listed as the best university of Hungary in seven subjects. Zsolt Enyedi, Pro-Rector for Hungarian Affairs is not too optimistic regarding that this result would reconcile anyone.
- Reporter: Zsolt Enyedi is in our studio. Good morning! Thank you for accepting our invitation.
- Zsolt Enyedi: Good morning!
- Report: Have your pessimism not changed?
- Zsolt Enyedi: No, since the academic achievements do not really have influence on the legal, political procedures.
- Reporter: You are saying this now but it might change or do you have a different view of the processes?
- Zsolt Enyedi: One would think that it mattered from a governmental point of view how the universities performed. It contributes to the competitiveness of a country but I tend to have a feeling that these results have a contrary effect. When the parliament discussed the huge amount of research grants we won, then a speaker from the governing party referred to it as negative which only proved that the international world handled the university as a favorite because of some political consideration, obviously. It seems to me that even the most professional performance is scrutinized through political lenses.
- Reporter: Let me tell once more. CEU was ranked 41st in the fields of political science and international relations and 44th in philosophy. It was highly ranked in sociology too. These are fantastic results, but tell us Mr. Enyedi, when this ranking is compiled, how many higher educational institutions are reviewed and ranked?
- Zsolt Enyedi: This specific company took a look at approx. 1,300 universities, as far as I know. Presumptively, a university can only be selected even for the list of the universities being ranked, the university must accomplish minimum requirements, in publications for example. Then these 1,200-1,300 universities were ranked in various fields. This ranking is particular in two senses: first, they do not expect from the specific university to offer bachelor programs. CEU doesn’t offer BA programs, which enables us to appear in this ranking. Second, it dismantles it to areas. Numerous other rankings only announce generally how good a university is but this one is more informative. Considering that a student has to decide on studying at a specific university, obviously it is not the most important for them how the university is in general but how that particular subject, they wish to study, performed.
- Reporter: So can we say that CEU ranked 41st in this field out of 1,300 universities altogether?
- Zsolt Enyedi: Yes, the company itself says that it is ranked 41st worldwide in this subject, counting all universities. If we look at it from a narrower point of view, we came 15th in Europe and if we took out Great Britain, we are 8th. Obviously, the smaller region we consider, the more significant the result is. Generally, these lists are dominated by American universities.
- Reporter: You can see it is good that you are live here with us in the studio so our viewers could see that smile on your face as you mentioned this list narrowing the results. However we consider this, of course, you must get by these actions in a completely different way, but it must be an enormous delight and acknowledgement in your life.
- Zsolt Enyedi: Sure, it is a huge confirmation. Previously, we didn’t perform badly in these rankings either, but it is a great leap forward for us compared to last year. Last year we weren’t ranked even among the top 50 in any of the fields and now we are listed with three areas. This is also relevant because I was a bit worried, to be honest, if my colleagues had had the capacity to publish their work despite of the difficult circumstances of last years, and how significant the role of the university was in the international research. It seems that despite of all these, they work really hard and the presence and the prestige of the university have intensified, in which politics might have done a part in a sense that while roughly the half of this index is consisted of publications and citations, the other half is backed by a survey. More than 80,000 academia-affiliated people were questioned which universities are the best in their area and employers were also asked. Now subjectivity must have a role in it obviously. When a survey is handed to me to mention which universities are the best ones in my field, I can easily refer to the ones I heard about in the last years. Politics must have had a part in that we have become a bit more visible.
- Reporter: Oh like when people tend to say that bad news can also raise awareness in the specific topic or for the specific person. Let me ask you, Mr. Enyedi about that we can read in the compilation and if you already narrowed this list, there are seven programs and fields in which you were ranked first or you skyrocketed in Hungary. Which are these?
- Zsolt Enyedi: Political science and international relations, law, sociology, philosophy, public policy and administration. I think we performed well in economics. We were successful in history and we were ranked in the top 100 here. Broadly these are the fields of humanities and social sciences in which CEU traditionally performs well.
- Reporter: What is going to happen to these programs in the future, from September? Will they disappear from Budapest or are these going to remain?
- Zsolt Enyedi: A hybrid solution will be applied next year. Some of the courses will be in Vienna and some in Hungary, Budapest. We'll try to maintain this new structure but we do not know exactly how it will yield in the long term. It is sure that the seat of our US programs will be moved to Vienna. And it seems that these are warmly welcomed in Vienna. Yesterday the mayor of Vienna issued a statement in which he commented on this ranking and he reflected on two things. One the one hand, how well the Austrian universities performed. He must be very proud of this. On the other hand, CEU is establishing a new campus in Vienna. According to him, these two facts support that how attractive city Vienna is.
- Reporter: Tell us, Mr. Enyedi, we are constantly talking about what will happen to the students understandably, but a lot of faculty are also working there. How can they or how will they going to solve this? I think of that if any of the professors would say that sorry but we can’t undertake this problem, this logistical problem.
- Zsolt Enyedi: It is possible there will be some. We talk about a lot of administrative staff, a lot of faculty here. Thousands of people are connected to the university one way or another. We talk about a lot of families and it is not sure that everyone will be able to commute or relocate. I must admit that we look forward to the following one or two years somewhat uneasily from this point of view since even we don’t know what it will mean from the perspective of our lives.
- Reporter: I am only asking it because it is as you mentioned. Shouldn’t you be worried that some quality deterioration would occur from your point of view as you must face numerous problems?
- Zsolt Enyedi: This is a rule at us. We have to solve this move and the partial stay, in case we have this possibility, that the quality should not decrease. We’ll mobilize all tools for this. In a sense, Vienna can mean a new boost from the perspective of quality too. We received quite a few applications from professors in Vienna who indicated that they would like to transfer to CEU. So this kind of new blood can flow in to the university. But we would like to remain what we have always been.
- Reporter: Congratulations for the results and all the best!
- Zsolt Enyedi: Thank you."