CEU President and Rector to Step Down in 2021

Michael Ignatieff has announced his intention to step down as Rector and President of Central European University (CEU) in July 2021, when his five-year term comes to a close, a communiqué by CEU says.

The communiqué also states that Michael Ignatieff will continue to contribute to CEU as a university professor, in a chair newly established by the Founder, George Soros.

In a letter to the faculty, staff, students and alumni of CEU, he writes that "we’ve been through so much together in the past four years: the government’s attack, our campaign to defend ourselves; our decision, finally, to move our teaching operations to Vienna; the opening of our Quellenstrasse campus and then, as if all that wasn’t enough, the Covid-19 crisis. All this combined has made this the most testing period in CEU’s history, but we have stood together as One CEU throughout, and I can’t thank you enough for your courage and commitment over these past four years." 

He adds that "in the next year, we have so much to do: begin teaching in September; welcome our first undergraduates and launch our new EMBA in business and economics; open the Democracy Institute in Budapest; anchor CEU in Vienna; develop our partnerships with CIVICA and OSUN; implement our CEU 2025 plan, with a revised budget for the next five years; and start making Steinhof our permanent home. I’m excited by these challenges, and I hope you are too."