The Austrian Private University Conference (ÖPUK), an umbrella organization representing 19 universities and over 21,000 students in the country has issued a stark statement condemning the EU Commission’s recent decision to withdraw the Erasmus and Horizon funds from Vienna’s Modul University (MU)—Austria’s leading international private university—just because its majority shareholder is a Hungarian foundation with close ties to the country’s conservative government.
In its statement, the association warns Brussels against the violation of scientific freedoms and “strongly and decisively rejects the political instrumentalization of students and university members by politicians of all stripes.”
It also reminds the EU Commission that one of the main goals of the Erasmus student mobility program is to increase participation in democratic life, which makes its recent decision to use the program as a tool for political pressure all the more contradictory.
ÖPUK states that:
The refusal of funding contradicts the principles of freedom of science, art, and teaching demanded by the Austrian legislator and practiced by all public and private law.
Exerting financial pressure on universities because (legally compliant) new ownership structures do not suit the political agenda of the funding bodies is unacceptable.
The ones ultimately suffering the consequences are the students, the statement says, adding that the decision is already being challenged at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Modul University has become a target of Austria’s leftist papers and politicians after the Hungarian Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) became its majority shareholder in 2023.
MCC is Hungary’s largest private educational institution which provides extracurricular training, scholarships, mobility programs, and research grants to thousands of students while also running several research institutions and think tanks.
However, since most of its funds are coming from the Hungarian government, MCC (and all its affiliated institutions, such as MU) have been declared the enemy by Brussels and Vienna’s liberal elite.
Austrian leftist journals first began criticizing the MU for not flying the rainbow flag in pride month, but politicians soon joined these attacks, such as the liberal Gerald Loackert (NEOS), who called for the expulsion of the institution from the country for allegedly spreading “Russian propaganda”—although he never elaborated on this.
The EU Commission’s most recent stunt, however, represents a completely new level in this regard. Hungarian universities have been stripped of Erasmus funds for nearly two years now officially because of the Hungarian government’s higher education reforms which allowed it to allegedly exert more influence on their executive boards.
However, since MU is located in Austria and complies with all local legislation, its inclusion in the EU sanctions only proves what Budapest has been saying all along: that the withdrawal of funds is not because of conflicts of interest, but a tool of political pressure against an ideological adversary.
Additionally, the timing of the decision is even more telling. MCC acquired MU back in 2023, yet the EU Commission only decided to withdraw its funds now, when the Orbán-ally Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) is set to form a government.
MEP Harald Vilimsky, the leader of FPÖ’s European parliamentary faction, also expressed outrage over the EU Commission’s “completely unfounded” and “ideologically motivated” decision.
“It is completely ridiculous and irresponsible that a program that allows young people to use international exchanges and education is used politically to incite hatred against the Hungarian government,” Vilimsky said. “This approach shows that the Commission has long since lost all its objectivity.”
