Central European University
Admissions Bulletin
Academic Year 2003/2004
Accuracy of the Admissions Bulletin
The information found in this publication is based on the 2002/2003 academic year; any changes to be implemented that were verifiable at the time of printing, particularly with regard to the content of the university's academic programs (course offerings, etc.), have been included. However, revisions may occur and details in this publication are subject to change. The Admissions Office can provide the most recent information available.
Language Used in the Admissions Bulletin
Throughout the Admissions Bulletin references are made to countries and nationalities with the following designations: "CEE/fSU" refers to countries and persons of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, which include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Yugoslavia. CEE/fSU countries are referred to collectively as "the region." Proper names in this publication have been anglicized; that is, they are printed in the basic Latin alphabet without diacritical marks.
Non-Discrimination Policy
Central European University does not discriminate on the basis of—including, but not limited to—race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation in administering its policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
Policy on Sexual Harassment
Central European University recognizes the human dignity of each member of its community. The university also believes that each member has a responsibility to promote respect and dignity for others so that all members of the community are free to pursue their goals in an open environment, able to participate in the free exchange of ideas, and able to share equally in the benefits of the university's employment and educational opportunities. To achieve this end, the university strives to foster an academic work and living environment that is free from any form of harassment, including that based on sex. For the full university policy on sexual harassment, please contact the Admissions Office or refer to the CEU Code of Ethics at http://www.ceu.hu/student_policies.html.
Further updates after the date of this publication can be found on the CEU website: http://www.ceu.hu.
Produced by the CEU/OSI Publications Office
© CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY, 2002
Table of contents
Part I. Introduction 3
Central European University: An Overview 4
Part II. Academic Departments, Schools and Programs
In Brief 9
List of Departments, Schools and Programs 9
Types of Degree Programs and Graduation Requirements 10
Non-Degree and Visiting Students 12
Academic Departments, Schools and Programs
• Economics 12
• Environmental Sciences and Policy 17
• Gender Studies 21
• History 25
• International Relations and European Studies 29
• Legal Studies 33
• Mathematics and its Applications 43
• Medieval Studies 47
• Nationalism Studies 51
• Philosophy 54
• Political Science 56
• Sociology and Social Anthropology 61
• Central European University Graduate School of Business 62
Joint Program with Bard College: Study Abroad in Budapest 67
Research Centers 68
• Center for Policy Studies 68
• Humanities Center 68
• Open Society Archives at Central European University 69
Outreach: Programs for Professors and Professionals 69
• Special and Extension Programs 70
• Special Projects Office 70
• Summer University 70
• Curriculum Resource Center 70
Part III. Facilities 70
Facilities 71
Housing and Dormitory Arrangements 72
Part IV. Student Services and Student Activities 73
Department of Student Services 73
Other Services Provided to Students 74
Student Activities 75
Part V. General CEU Admissions Requirements 76
General CEU Admissions Requirements 76
Full information on the admissions process and the Application for Admission are available
as a separate publication which can be obtained from the Admissions Office, the local
CEU Coordinators, or downloaded from CEU's website: http://www.ceu.hu.
Part VI. Tuition and Fees 79
Tuition and Fees 80
Financial Regulations and Payment Information 81
Part VII. Financial Aid 83
Financial Aid Eligibility 83
Financial Aid Policy and Procedures 83
Forms of Financial Aid 84
Part VIII. Telephone Numbers of Local CEU Coordinators 85
PART I.
INTRODUCTION
Letter from CEU's President and Rector
Central European University: An Overview
Mission: Devoted to Education and Open Society
A Brief History
Concept of an Open Society
Registration and Accreditation
Board of Trustees
Principal Officers
Faculty
Student Body
CEU Alumni
Letter from CEU’s President and Rector
Dear prospective CEU student,
CEU prepares to welcome a new generation of students in academic year 2003/2004 as a more complete university, with greater ambitions of cultivating academic excellence and active social involvement.
The academic structure of the university is now strengthened with the relocation of the Sociology Department from Warsaw to Budapest, adding to the other 15 academic units and research centers operating here. CEU is a graduate research university dedicated mainly to social sciences and humanities and the presence of a Sociology Department on the Budapest campus is an essential component that will help significantly with the efforts to ensure high quality interdisciplinary teaching and research in these areas.
Another important new addition to the range of academic offerings of CEU is the establishment of a Graduate School of Business. The school, resulting from the full integration of the International Management Center (previously loosely affiliated with CEU), aims at training business leaders with outstanding management skills and, not less important, with a sense of civic responsibility. The curriculum of the school combines global business concepts and practices with the realities and challenges of the regional business environment.
The beginning of the third millennium has arrived with new global challenges and the CEU academic community is fully engaged in an effort to pursue a type of new knowledge that could help to tackle these challenges successfully, along the shifting boundary of the local and the universal. The outstanding international faculty of CEU and its topnotch students deal with theoretical issues which have major practical consequences, such as how to conceive the balance between the pressing needs for security and the respect for human rights; what kind of equilibrium to envisage between the thirst for maximizing economic or financial benefits with concerns for ethical or environmental standards. Do recent developments such as the 2000 US presidential elections (the Florida vote-counting controversy), the major accounting scandals and the many cases of corporate fraud, the seeming violation of human rights even in the US, mean that the moral superiority with which the West frequently confronts the rest of the world is less obvious and has to be rethought in a spirit of modesty and joint efforts with the non-Western parts of the globe?
For academic year 2002/2003, CEU received a record number of applications, from about 72 countries. This is a good indication that, while continuing to focus on its traditional constituency, CEU is progressing with its plans for "going global."
We look forward to welcoming you too as a member of the CEU community.
Your
Yehuda Elkana
83
CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY: AN OVERVIEW
MISSION: DEVOTED TO EDUCATION AND OPEN SOCIETY
Central European University (CEU) is an internationally recognized institution of post- graduate education in social sciences and humanities. It seeks to contribute to the development of open societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (CEE/fSU) and other emerging democracies by promoting a system of education in which ideas are creatively, critically, and comparatively examined. CEU serves as an advanced center of research and policy analysis and facilitates academic dialogue while preparing its graduates to serve as the region's next generation of leaders and scholars. The CEU Fellowship Program has been a direct means of supporting the university's mission to develop and sustain open societies, democracy, rule of law, tolerance, and political and cultural pluralism in the region. However, it has become clear over the last decade that Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are not the only parts of the world experiencing the development of more open societies, and also that the main economic, political, social and cultural phenomena taking place in the region could be better understood if studied within a comparative approach which integrates the local into a global perspective. To address the challenges resulting from this spreading democratization and in consideration of the need for a wider, comparative perspective, in 2001 CEU decided that, while continuing to focus on individuals and organizations in the CEE/fSU region, the CEU Fellowship Program would be extended worldwide, with particular emphasis on students in emerging democracies.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Central European University was established in 1991 as an institution committed to promoting educational development throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. CEU is a unitary institution, under a common Board of Trustees and Senate. The language of instruction and communication is English.
The concept of an institution of higher learning in Central Europe, one which would bring together students and faculty from a diverse regional and international background in an open and liberal academic setting, was first discussed in 1989 by a small group of concerned individuals, many of them former dissidents, in Dubrovnik, Croatia, then part of former Yugoslavia. The setting was the Inter-University Centre, which was for several years the location of courses in social sciences offered to just such an audience. Funding and support for the participants taking the courses came from George Soros, and it was a natural progression that, as the region began its rapid transformation—with varying results—Soros and those who shared his vision would begin to prepare for the new conditions which would emerge.
Beginning with 100 students in 1991, CEU has grown rapidly and now enrolls about 930 students from altogether 46 countries.
CONCEPT OF AN OPEN SOCIETY
An open society is a society based on the recognition that nobody has a monopoly on truth, that different people have different views and interests, and that there is a need for institutions to protect the rights of all people and to allow them to live together in peace. The term "open society" was popularized by the philosopher Karl Popper in his 1945 book Open Society and Its Enemies. Broadly speaking, an open society is characterized by a reliance on the rule of law, the existence of a democratically elected government, a diverse and vigorous civil society, and respect for minorities and minority opinions.
REGISTRATION AND ACCREDITATION
CEU has an absolute charter from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (US) for and on behalf of the New York State Education Department. This is the legal instrument which allows CEU to operate and maintain a degree-granting institution.
Central European University is a Candidate for Accreditation by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 US; (+1 215) 662-5606. Candidate for Accreditation is a status of affiliation with a regional accrediting commission that indicates that an institution has achieved recognition and is progressing toward, but is not assured of, accreditation. It has provided evidence of sound planning, seems to have the resources to implement the plans, and appears to have the potential for obtaining its goals within a reasonable period of time. Candidate for Accreditation status was granted to CEU in June 1999.
In Hungary, CEU is recognized as a foreign educational institution with the right to conduct educational activities, whose degrees may be nostrified by the Ministry of Education and Culture in accordance with relevant statutes.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
George Soros (Chairman)
Aryeh Neier (Secretary)
Donald Blinken
Leon Botstein (Vice-Chair and Treasurer)
Gerhard Casper
Natalie Zemon Davis
Yehuda Elkana (President and Rector)
Gyorgy Enyedi
Patricia Albjerg Graham
Vartan Gregorian
Wolf Lepenies
William Newton-Smith
Istvan Rev
Istvan Teplan (Executive Vice-President)
PRINCIPAL OFFICERS
Yehuda Elkana, President and Rector
Stefan Messmann, Academic Pro-Rector
Istvan Teplan, Executive Vice-President
Liviu Matei, Academic Secretary
FACULTY
Over 100 professors from around the world teach at CEU; they come from countries including Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia. Additionally, CEU hosts a number of visiting professors who teach courses and give frequent lectures and seminars, thus giving students access to highly respected academics from other institutions.
STUDENT BODY
During the 2002/2003 academic year, CEU enrollment is expected to stand at 930 regular degree and non-degree students. Out of the 930 students 550 are newly enrolled degree students and 380 are continuing and non-degree students, from altogether 46 countries. The newly enrolled students are drawn from 43 countries including 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (CEE/fSU), Western Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia. In addition, CEU enrolls a number of non-degree and visiting students as well as undergraduate students from North America on a semester study abroad program. For further details on the study abroad program, please refer to "Joint Program with Bard College" under "Academic Departments and Programs."
CEU ALUMNI
As of 2002 the number of CEU alumni has grown to approximately 4,400 individuals. Through the Alumni Affairs Office, CEU maintains contacts with about 90 percent of its graduates, and provides support in networking among alumni, job placement and exchange of career-related information as well as alumni- student career mentoring. The CEU alumni program also offers a number of services and benefits, fully described on the alumni web pages at www.ceu.hu/students_alumni.html.
The Second Annual CEU Alumni Leadership Forum was held in October 2001 in Budapest. The forum established the CEU Alumni & Friends Association (CEU-AFA), by adopting the constitution of the association. Later in spring 2002, all CEU alumni were invited to participate in a referendum on the CEU Alumni & Friends Association. Based on the results of the referendum, the CEU-AFA Constitution took effect on April 22, 2002, and now facilitates the activities and collaboration of all alumni members throughout the world. It provides the basis for further developing the CEU alumni network and enhancing already existing alumni programs. One of the recent alumni association initiatives was the first CEU alumni scholarship fundraising campaign undertaken during 2001. With generous gifts from more than 500 alumni, CEU was able to award the first Alumni Fellowship to a student selected from among the best candidates of each department.