Scandinavian countries will no longer support Belarusian university in exile

European Humanities University can be left without its main founders, while the Nordic Council of Ministers has been one of the biggest donors since 2008.

On May 10 the Nordic Council of Ministers decided that it will no longer provide funding to Lithuanian-based European Humanities University (EHU). The decision is a result of the Council of Ministers’ budget restructuring to free up funds for co-operation on the integration of refugees and immigrants this year, their statement reads.

According to the donors, the decision to stop funding EHU is also based on the outcome of a process in which the role and strategy of the university has been up for discussion. Repeated internal divisions at EHU have also detracted from its activities in recent years, they stress.

The decision might have also stemmed from a number of scandals in the EHU, in particular, the recent appointment of its Rector, Belsat suggests. Moreover, the Nordic Council commissioned an audit of its financial activity of the University, which disclosed alleged misconduct by the current administration, the newspaper Nasha Niva reports.

The issue of the future of the university will be on the agenda at June’s meeting of the Governing Board, Dzyanis Kuchynski, the president of the EHU Student Union, told svaboda.org. According to him, the decision to stop supporting the university may be the result of the long-term uncertainty about the university leadership.

“The question is whether other donors will agree to provide funding, or whether, for example, the European Commission or SIDA will increase it,” Kuchynski said.

Founded in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 1992, soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the European Humanities University was one of the few private, nonprofit liberal-arts institutions in the country.

But in 2004, Belarusian officials shut it down after it stood up against attempts to undermine its academic freedom. In response, a small team of faculty members and administrators set up a “university in exile” across the border in neighboring Lithuania.