One of the most important developments or events in the unit's history
Laying the foundations and establishing the Master's degree in Public Policy. Starting in 2002, CPS designed the curriculum, fundraised external seed funding, obtained accreditation and recruited the founding faculty of the Department of Public Policy. This was done with contributions from many CEU sources, as well as in close co-operation with the Open Society Institute, known today as the Open Society Foundations. Since the beginning, the degree program has been strongly supported with scholarships from many external partners, notably the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Open Society Foundations, the European Commission, Deutsche Telekom, as well as other private and civic awards. In terms of application numbers, public policy has become one of the most popular degree programs at CEU.
The most important development in 2014-15
CPS was part of three successful EU research applications, worth over €700,000, over the next three years. Each project will examine the fallout from the financial crisis in Europe, whether in terms of the impact on social cohesion, the institutional ability to solve transnational crises, or popular attitudes to EU development programs. CPS took part in the successful completion of the NEUJOBs project, a three-year investigation into the transformation of employment, culminating in the launch of two major policy volumes, "The Future of Labour in Europe."
Other important developments in 2014-15
CPS continues to research the darker side of migration in Europe, whether in terms of new forms of child trafficking, the social marginalisation of immigrants, or barriers to the formal labor market. CPS is an active member of the EU's Civil Society Platform against the Trafficking in Human Beings. The US National Endowment for Democracy granted CPS USD 45,000 to run a Roma Placement Program, which supports young Roma MA and PhD graduates to build professional skills, and to promote their engagement in public affairs at NGOs in Macedonia and Serbia.
Engagement with external entities in 2014-15
- Over the next three years, CPS will partner with universities from the US, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, and Spain on a faculty and staff exchange program that looks at policies to combat educational inequalities. It will benefit junior and senior researchers from CEU with visits for up to two months, as well as hosting researchers from those countries.
- With support from the University, CPS began a joint seminar and conference program with Corvinus University on current challenges in health care policy. So far, the program has featured two workshops and two seminars, with another three planned for AY 2015-16. Topics include informal payments, decision making in resource allocation, and health technology.
- CPS continues to run Policy Labs, an applied research program for public policy students, this year with partners from the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Response, Habitat for Humanity International, the International Federation of the Red Cross, the Hungarian refugee NGO Menedek, and Analytica, a think tank run by a CEU alumnus in Sarajevo.
- CPS research fellow Andrea Krizsan is a long-standing member of the European Parliament's FEMM – Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee. She also takes an active role in the European Commission's Expert Group on Gender Equality (ENEGE), and contributed to a 2015 report on "Visions for Gender Equality."
Faculty distinctions in 2014-15
Julia Szalai, senior researcher at CPS, won the 2014 Karl Polanyi award of the Hungarian Sociological Association. The award is given every year as recognition for the best book or article published in the field of sociology. Szalai's award is for her co-authorship and editing of the following two publications: "Migrant, Roma and Post-colonial Youth in Education across Europe: Being Visibly Different" (Houndsmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, co-editors: Julia Szalai, Claire Schiff); and "Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization in Local Contexts" (Budapest: CEU Center for Policy Studies, 2014, co-editors: Julia Szalai, Violetta Zentai).
Major events in 2014-15
In December 2014, CPS hosted a major conference "Fissures and Ruptures in European Societies: Masses, Migrants and Minorities" which brought scholars from around Europe to debate how modern migration relates to other major social divides. http://cps.ceu.edu/events/2014-12-11/fissures-and-ruptures-in-european-s...
Other news or information
Andrew Cartwright, CPS research fellow, was a co-author in this year's "World Disaster Report from the International Federation of the Red Cross." CPS Research Fellow Andrea Krizsan was a contributing author to the Policy Press publication, "Stopping Rape: Towards a Comprehensive Policy."
