Academic freedom and dissent in higher education: the case of Hungary

Balázs Majtényi and Andrew Ryder

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2025, vol. 33, issue 2, 483-499

Abstract: The article provides insights into the limitation of academic freedom, the nature of higher education reform in Hungary and the corresponding dissent. The article is influenced by critical university studies and seeks to expose and critique forms of institutional oppression shaped by hegemonic ideologies. It is a paradigm that has a predilection for activism and solutions grounded in social change and transformative movements. It describes how the Hungarian government has managed to restrict academic freedom, mainly through legislation, financial pressure and state-sponsored media attacks. Hungary after 2010 provides an important case study for what can happen to academic freedom under an authoritarian regime and the nature and scope of dissent. It is important to explore forms of dissent, because in doing so, we create reference points for the future, and it could strengthen the capacity of democratic resilience in a society. Dissent can be a catalyst for change and be viewed as a positive societal dynamic. Dissenters, including those in academia, can become the architects of the future they desire and move from the margins to the centre of decision-making and knowledge production.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/25739638.2024.2435785 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cdebxx:v:33:y:2025:i:2:p:483-499

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cdeb20

DOI: 10.1080/25739638.2024.2435785

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe is currently edited by Andrew Kilmister

More articles in Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().