Outcry as CEU closes refugee access programme

Staff and students at the Central European University (CEU) want managers to reverse a decision to close a long-running refugee access programme, despite promises of a bigger successor.

A petition that calls for the “Olive” Open Learning Initiative to be revived and claims that its closure will hurt “the most vulnerable people in Europe” has been signed by more than 1,000 CEU students, staff and supporters. A protest was planned outside an extraordinary meeting of the university senate on 24 February. Prem Kumar Rajaram, the initiative director, attended the meeting and expressed his opposition to the shutdown.

“I don’t understand why you need to kill one thing before setting up something else,” Ian Cook, Olive’s former director of studies, told Times Higher Education. The CEU-trained anthropologist had his contract with the university ended without reason when the closure was announced. He said he had asked 15 times why he had been let go. The university declined to comment on the decision.

Set up in 2015 in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, Olive has helped more than 1,000 refugees prepare for university, offering language training, free legal advice and a programme of weekend courses in academic subjects. It has been funded by Erasmus, the Open Society Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, with top-ups from the university.

Olive was left behind in Budapest when most of the university departed for Vienna in 2018, having faced persistent legal pressure from the Hungarian government. A subsequent law against non-governmental organisations that assist refugees forced the university to spin Olive out as a separate legal entity.

The European Association of Social Anthropologists has written to the CEU’s rector, Shalini Randeria, saying it is “very concerned about the lack of transparency” around Olive’s closure. A confidential evaluation by the initiative’s penultimate funder, the CEU-linked Open Society University Network (Osun), recommended that the university set up a broader programme that matched its new home in Vienna and scaled up the number students it could handle.

“Our priority is to build our university here in Vienna, and because of that we are creating a new access programme,” said Tim Crane, the CEU’s pro rector for teaching and learning. While a CEU task force has been set up to decide the “more integrated” replacement’s final form, Professor Crane said it would cater for first-generation and Roma students, as well as those from outside Europe.

The bigger initiative could involve other universities in Osun, such as online learning leader Arizona State University, he said. While the CEU had an “open mind” about delivery, it was “definitely interested” in including online components.

Both Professor Crane and Dr Cook agreed that a bigger, broader access programme made sense, and that an online-only approach would not work. “We’re committed to have a new programme which will have some continuity…and be open to the same constituency,” said Professor Crane.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com