A leading Hungarian university is to upgrade its Budapest campus after it secured a €25 million (?22.4 million) loan from the European Investment Bank.

The Central European University will renovate teaching, conference and research facilities in central Budapest thanks to the European Union-backed investment.

Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019, the project will bring the university’s academic and administrative facilities into one campus at the heart of the historic Hungarian capital, the university said.

Founded by the billionaire banker George Soros in 1991, who provided an endowment of $880 million, the postgraduate university is currently led by the historian Michael Ignatieff, a former Canadian politician who has also held senior academic posts in the US, the UK and Canada.

The EIB that the upgraded campus “will contribute to improving education in Hungary with a positive effect on innovation, productivity and employability. The new facilities will strengthen R&D infrastructure as well, facilitating the research carried out by the university”.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com