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CEU Summer University (SUN) 
Budapest, July 1 – July 31, 2025 

If you are interested in applying to any of our courses as a participant, please visit our course listing here

Those who wish to propose a course with a team of faculty for 2025 should follow the guidelines below. (The application process for 2024 is closed.)

Call for Course Proposals 

The Summer University (SUN) of the Central European University (CEU) announces a call for course proposals for its summer school program held in Budapest, July 1 – July 31, 2025.

Cooperation partner: the Open Society Foundations (OSF)

We encourage course teams to create new partnerships between CEU and their academic and professional institutions, networks, foundations, and interested sponsors supporting their fields by offering external funding.

Program description

The Summer University (SUN) of CEU is the extension of the university’s mission of promoting research, teaching, and social engagement by hosting high-level, research-oriented, interdisciplinary, and innovative academic courses in the social sciences and the humanities as well as workshops on policy issues and professional development. The short, intensive courses, developed and taught collaboratively by teams of distinguished international scholars (including faculty of CEU), experts and practitioners, are aimed at global audiences including graduate students, junior or post-doctoral researchers, junior faculty, and professionals. The teaching teams' joint expertise is shared with participants in a comparative framework during the summer courses.

SUN offers a platform for debate, collaboration, and innovation across the sectors of higher education, policy, practice, and activism, and builds stronger and more durable linkages at the peer and institutional levels. SUN courses cater to the various needs of academic and professional development in the social sciences and humanities across a wide spectrum of disciplines. These include anthropology, cognitive science, comparative religion, cultural heritage, environmental sciences, gender studies, history, environmental sciences and policy, international relations, cultural, legal, media and medieval studies, mediation, philosophy, political science, public policy, sociology, etc. The program encourages topics in emerging fields and subjects of global significance. 

Past SUN courses addressed topical issues: inequalities, conflict resolution, interethnic relations, migration, nationalism and transnationalism, globalization, human rights, climate change and sustainability, urban development, Romani identities, religion and politics, use of geospatial technologies for environmental decision and policymaking, among others. A segment of courses aimed to develop innovative curricula and pedagogical approaches in traditional disciplines, including medieval studies, philosophy, music, and arts. The courses combine the focus on general theoretical frameworks and approaches to research and application embedded in the context of the countries/regions the course participants come from.

The program builds on CEU's recognized academic excellence, regional expertise, and resources, and provides space for academic networking between junior and senior scholars from a wide range of institutions and discipline areas, often with long-term outcomes such as collaborative research and teaching projects, joint publications, civic engagement projects, etc.

History and Key Facts

To multiply the impact of CEU's mission, the summer program was launched in 1996. Since the inception of the program, twenty-eight summer schools held from 1996 to 2023 offered 490 courses. Until 2023, the program received 39,538 applications; 13,616 participants attended, and 4,200 faculty taught in its courses. The average number of countries represented in any given course is 13-17, ensuring the truly and uniquely international nature of the program.

Participants enrolled in the program so far represent over 150 different countries ranging from East and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union to countries of Asia, Africa, North and South America. Most of the past participants are graduate students, junior faculty, and researchers; the courses also draw professionals: government officials, independent experts, NGO workers, artists, and activists. The gender distribution tends to be 57% female and 43% male. Faculty members have come to teach courses from close to 90 different countries.

Course Types

Courses typically last one or two (consecutive) weeks. Based on the CEU credit hour system, each course has a teaching load of 24 hours (1,200 minutes) per week of classroom work, complemented by independent reading and extracurricular activities. The program offers the following types of courses:

(1) research-focused/intensive collaborations co-led by CEU and non-CEU faculty, with the involvement of further invited faculty and experts. Courses are collaboratively developed and delivered in partnerships among academics and professionals from institutions in the Global South and the Global North. 

(2) policy, professional, and community-oriented programs/courses as well as skills-oriented training courses

 

How to submit a SUN course proposal?

Click on the Guidelines to find out more about the program details and on how to design a course that matches CEU’s priorities and funding schemes. 
 

Downloadable required attachments

For detailed instructions please read the Guidelines.