President and Rector

The CEU community and special guests gathered in the University's new auditorium on October 21 to inaugurate the University's fifth President and Rector Michael Ignatieff. Chairman of the Board of Trustees Leon Botstein conducted the investiture during a ceremony complemented by Hungarian music and poetry. The ceremony also celebrated the two new state-of-the-art campus buildings.  Ignatieff is a Canadian professor, award-winning writer, and former politician educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard University.

Government rhetoric in several states along the so-called Balkan route that refugees follow into Europe has shifted to framing the migration as a threat to both security and national identities, according to participants in a roundtable discussion entitled "The Politics of Migration Across Europe; Domestic Politics and European Values," held October 10 by the CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies (CENS), and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. CENS Director Peter Balazs moderated the event, held in a new tiered classrom in CEU's new Nador utca 15 buildings.

Hungarian daily Nepszabadsag published an interview with President and Rector Michael Ignatieff about the university and its mission on October 1, 2016. The Hungarian article can be found here, and the English translation is below.

INTERVIEW - Michael Ignatieff, CEU’s new President and Rector, talks about the university, its mission, and George Soros, whom he calls a patriot.

Why did you apply for the position of President and Rector of CEU?

CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff spoke to Steve Paikin on TVO's The Agenda about liberal fundamentals like individualism, freedom of speech and universal human rights and why a liberal world-view no longer enjoys the popularity it once did. 

http://tvo.org/video/programs/the-agenda-with-steve-paikin/an-end-of-an-era