Michael Ignatieff-led university 'forced out' of Hungary

Central European Universityrun by former Canadian Liberal leaderMichaelIgnatieff has confirmed it will move its U.S.-accredited degree programs from the Hungarian capital of Budapest to Vienna as ofSeptember2019 afterHungary's governmentrefusedto sign an agreement allowing it to stay.

Ignatieff, CEUpresident and rector, said Mondaythe university "has been forced out."

"This is unprecedented. A U.S. institution has been driven out of a country that is a NATO ally.A European institution has been ousted from a member state of the EU. "

CEU's ouster is part of populist, anti-immigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ideological battle against Hungarian-American financier and CEU founder George Soros and his "open society" model.

The university said it would retain "accreditation as a Hungarian university and ... continue teaching and research activity in Budapest as long as possible."