CEU Opens 23rd Academic Year, Honors Winner of Teaching Award

September 17, 2013

CEU President and Rector John Shattuck welcomed the incoming class of students at the University’s 23rd opening ceremony, held on Sept. 13 in the CEU Auditorium. This year, 539 new MA students, 82 new PhD students, and over 100 visiting and exchange students from 85 countries join the ranks of CEU's graduate student population.

Critical thinking is at the heart of our teaching at CEU. Freedom at CEU means an environment where you can challenge each other and your professors,” Shattuck said. “You will do very well, if you work hard and take intellectual risks. And don't forget to have fun. Enjoy this extraordinary moment in your lives when you are learning how to follow your dreams – and if you get it right – how to save the world.”



Incoming CEU students talk at the the CEU 2013-2014 opening ceremony. Image credit: CEU/Peter Rakossy

Author and CEU Trustee Kati Marton followed Shattuck and greeted students on behalf of the board of trustees, calling CEU “George Soros's most successful experiment in human engineering.” A native of Budapest, Marton urged students to get to know the city beyond CEU's campus and to seek sources and inspiration outside of the classroom. “Don't keep your noses in your books and don't keep them in your laptops,” she said. “The real world is so much more interesting. We're all swimming in data, but don't mistake information for knowledge; it is in human exchange where you will find knowledge.”

The heart of CEU – its student body – was represented by continuing student Iaroslav Miller from the Department of Economics and incoming student Isabel Patkowski from the Department of Philosophy. Miller encouraged new students to get to know one another's cultures. “CEU is the place where everyone can evolve into citizens of the world, so don't miss the chance,” he said.



Tijana Krstic, CEU associate professor of medieval studies welcomes students on behalf of the faculty. Image credit: CEU/Peter Rakossy

Associate Professor of Medieval Studies Tijana Krstic spoke on behalf of the faculty. A native of Serbia, Krstic recalled CEU as “a major guiding star in the moral and intellectual universe” for people of her generation from Southeast, Central, and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. “Now, more than 20 years after its foundation, CEU’s impact is becoming more global as it has evolved into a cosmopolitan research institution that is rooted in the region but has global horizons that remain faithful to its founding mission to promote humanities and social sciences as a way of opening minds, encouraging critical thinking, and fostering empathy with others,” she said. “By encouraging and giving tools to the graduates to explore non-academic careers and conceptualize projects that transcend disciplinary boundaries, CEU is also contributing to making the background in humanities an in-demand qualification for various professions that have traditionally looked elsewhere for recruitment.”

At the end of the ceremony, Shattuck presented the 2012 European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities to Matthew Braham, professor and chair of political philosophy at the University of Bayreuth (Germany). CEU established the annual award on the occasion of its 20th anniversary in 2011 to promote excellence in teaching across the European Higher Education Area. The honor and its accompanying €5,000 prize are made possible by funding from an anonymous donor “I


CEU President and Rector John Shattuck present the second-annual European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities to Professor Matthew Braham of the University of Bayreuth. Image credit: CEU/Peter Rakossy

n Memory of Ilona Diener.”

Braham, the second recipient of the award, also coordinates the joint MA in philosophy and economics at Bayreuth. His nominator was a guest professor at the university and he commended Braham for his innovation in the classroom and his commitment to student success. “I taught three courses in practical philosophy between October 2012 and February 2013. In two of these courses, all students had completed teaching-intensive lectures and seminars with Matthew Braham; in the third course, no student had yet had him as a teacher,” his nominator wrote. “In terms of the intellectual capacities and aptitude for critical thinking, the difference between the students was remarkable. Those who had taken a class with Braham were able to discuss and challenge the presented course material with astonishing clarity. Those who has not yet benefitted from his teaching lacked some of these qualities.”

In his acceptance speech, Braham emphasized the importance of teaching in today's complex world. “How do we sustainably change the world? Not with guns, not with business, but with good teaching,” he said. “I take this award as evidence that I have recognized some key values and have tried to put them into practice. We can create a better world with this very fundamental piece of human technology: teaching.”