CEP launched its program in Hungary in 1992. The first few years were uniquely characterized by the teaching and outreach activities of Visiting Lecturers. Most of them came from North America or Britain and taught courses which were considered rare, or even never heard of before, e.g. American Constitution, Theories of Democracy, Comparative Electoral Systems, Co-operative Learning, Corporate Finance. By introducing student-centered, interactive methodologies in the classroom and by setting a very high professional standard in their departments, they made major contributions to their host departments.

Parallel to their teaching, CEP Hungary Fellows also made a difference through their various outreach activities, such as organizing a Regional Workshop on Business Ethics in 1993, a Regional Roundtable on Gender in 1994, a series of Regional Workshops on Teaching and Learning 1997-1999, editing a textbook on Nationalism in 1993, etc.

As a result, CEP Hungary has built a solid reputation as part of an extended international network of academics and institutions, and is often solicited to participate in local and regional partnerships (list of partner organizations below).

In the past few years, CEP Hungary has moved away from the Visiting Lecturer Program and has launched, as most of the CEP country programs have, a Local Faculty Fellow Program through which talented and committed young academics are supported and involved in CEP’s network. These fellows are not only outstanding university teachers, but are also active in extracurricular activities, community service and various other projects.

From this educational foundation, CEP Hungary has been able to launch several new civic initiatives focussing on the area of multiculturalism, minority issues, community building and community service, as well as academic network building. CEP Hungary is moving away from being a merely higher educational support program towards a more complex one which takes into consideration the fact that universities are integral parts of the community and the society where they operate and therefore hold a responsibility in training open minded, critically thinking citizens.