Rajk László College for Advanced Studies

Rajk László College for Advanced Studies Rajk László Szakkollégium
Location
Budapest Hungary
Information
Type	Private college
Established	1970
President	Prof. Attila Chikán
Principal	Márton Ilyés
Number of students	90
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	Corvinus University of Budapest, Eötvös Loránd University - Eltecon, Central European University, EucA
Alumni	~700
Website	http://rajk.eu

Rajk László College for Advanced Studies (Hungarian: Rajk László Szakkollégium) is an educational institution offering accommodation as well as advanced courses in the fields of economics and social sciences, establishing a community for students. It was founded in 1970 by the students of the Corvinus University of Budapest (then Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences), with Attila Chikán as its first principal. It is the oldest existing institution of the kind in Hungary, giving a model to later colleges. The college also specifically helped with the formation of colleges in Hungary and abroad, such as the Bibó István College for Advanced Studies in Hungary or the Mikó Imre College for Advanced Studies in Romania. The college was named after László Rajk, a leading Hungarian Communist, who was proclaimed enemy of the regime and executed in a show trial in 1949. The idea behind the naming of the college was to express criticism towards the system at the time.

The college played a politically active role during the time of the communist regime. In the 1980s, it served as a base for the opposition and organized several political fora and assisted political movements such as Fidesz, contributing to the transformation of Hungary to a democratic country with a market economy.

There are several inner institutions which are responsible for organizing the college's operation in different fields. The main power of the college is the Assembly in which every member has the right to vote. It meets three or four times a semester. For day to day matters there is an annually elected Student Board that has regular meetings every week. Its members are the principal, the senior advisor, the chairman of the Student Board and six other students elected by the Assembly every February. The Committee for Academic Activities is responsible for the education and research activities. It organizes and supervises the courses and promotes academic publications.

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Wikipedia