Over the next five years, the Hungarian government will provide nearly $22 million in financial aid to Budapest’s Milton Friedman University, owned by the Chabad-affiliated EMIH, the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities.
An agreement was signed on Wednesday between Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics and Rabbi Shlomo Köves, head of EMIH. The funds will be used to develop and expand the institute’s range of training.
According to the agreement, MFU will also receive nearly $1.7 million in additional funding this year, bringing the amount of financial aid at its disposal in 2022 to $3m. The university will then receive $3.9m. in government funding in 2023, $4.8m. in 2024, $3.2m. in 2025, $3.2m. in 2025, and $3.5m. in 2027.
The support will be used to further develop the university and expand its educational program. As part of that effort, a teacher-training course has been accredited, and an international Master’s degree in Jewish Studies has been launched. Additionally, a Bachelor’s degree in Jewish Studies will launch next year with help from the Ashkenazium Institute, which hosts professors of Jewish studies from the US and Israel.
“The Jewish community in Hungary has made significant intellectual contributions to the prosperity of the country in both culture and science over the past 200-250 years,” said MFU president Dániel Bodnár. “That is why we consider it important that Hungarian Jewry, like other historic religious groups, also play its part in higher education and, through it, social responsibility. We hope that with this support, the university can do even more for the benefit of Hungarian society and higher education, and convey the values of the Jewish community.”
MFU is a higher education institution formerly known as King Sigismund College, purchased by EMIH five years ago and renamed after the Nobel Prize-winning American economist. The institute provides degrees in human resources, business informatics, management and administration, communication and media studies, international management, international studies, finance and accounting, and sociology. About 35% more prospective students applied to MFU in 2021 than the previous year, and the number continues to grow.
“A university with competitive, secular disciplines and around 1,400 students, maintained by the Jewish community, is quite unique for Europe,” said Köves. “This is an immense opportunity not only for Hungary and the Hungarian Jewish community but also for the European Jewish community.”
The Hungarian government signed similar agreements in March with 11 universities maintained by the Catholic Church and four maintained by the Reformed Church.