Central European University Budapest Foundation

The Central European University (CEU) was established in 1991 by a group of visionary intellectuals led by the philanthropist George Soros. CEU was to be an unusual graduate school for the Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (CEE/fSU) region, an independent international institution offering a curriculum in the social sciences and the humanities, committed to promoting a new model of learning: serious and morally responsible intellectual engagement inspired by, and in the service of, pressing and challenging social needs.

CEU is an international university in the truest sense: Its students come from nearly 70 countries, the majority from Central and Eastern Europe and Russia; its faculty, from more than 30 countries—with the mix of nationalities increasing every year. CEU's continuing interest in the Caucasus and Central Asia has also attracted strong applicants from these parts of the world. Increasingly, CEU has been able to welcome students from Western Europe and North America and its outreach efforts in transition countries have also brought students from Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, and Latin America. As of 2007, the number of CEU graduates has grown to more than 6,400 individuals, residing in over 80 countries. Accredited both in the United States and in Hungary, the university's unique combination of American, Western European and regional intellectual and academic traditions enables CEU to place emphasis on the shifting boundary between the local and the universal in the theoretical, as well as the practical aspects of research and teaching.

CEU is a founding member of the European University Association (EUA). The EUA, as the representative organization of both the European universities' and the national rectors' conferences, is the leading voice of the higher education community in Europe. As a European university, CEU seeks to become part of the European higher education area envisioned by the Bologna process.

Center for Policy Studies


The main partner from CEU of the GARNET project is the Center for Policy Studies (CPS). CPS works for better government and administration in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union through public policy teaching and research. Based at the Central European University, CPS carries out research projects, develops materials for teaching and training, offers a masters degree in public policy and, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute, sponsors policy research in transition and emerging democracies. The Center is committed to the development of indigenous policy capacities and offers an on-line library of policy research papers from the region. An active member of several policy networks, CPS organises conferences, workshops and public events to encourage interaction between academics, policy institutes and policy makers and to promote exchange of expertise and best practice. The Masters course and the research projects are inter-disciplinary, comparative and geared towards policy recommendations and practical outcomes.

The CPS is involved in several international projects funded within the Framework Programmes, among them MAGEEQ, Gender Mainstreaming (36 months, 2003-2005); MIP, Women's Integration after Prison (28 months, 2002-2005); KNOWNET, Marie Curie Chairship and research project Mapping Global Knowledge Networks (24 months, 2004-2005); DIOSCURI, Eastern Enlargement, Western Enlargement (STREP, 36 months, 2004-2007); SOCCOH, The Challenge of Socio-Economic Cohesion in the Enlarged European Union (STREP, 24 months, 2006-2007); RECWOWE, Reconciling between Work and Welfare in Europe (NoE, 2006- ); QUING, Quality in Gender Equality Policies (IP, 48 months, 2006-2010)– under negotiation. EDUMIGROM, A comparative view on the role of schooling in ethnically diverse communities with second-generation migrants and Roma, (FP7/Collaborative Research Project, 36 months, 2008-2011), under negotiation

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