András Léderer, Head of Advocacy at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee discusses the transformation of Hungarian higher education institutions into privately owned entities managed by government-appointed boards with lifelong tenure, a process that began in 2018. These boards, which have significant control over university operations, are part of public interest trust management foundations that received substantial public assets. Concerns include reduced academic freedom, potential creation of a parallel state, and conflicts of interest. The podcast also features insights from Orsolya Vincze, a lawyer at K-Monitor, a Hungarian anti-corruption NGO, and Gergely Kovács, PhD, an associate professor at the Institute of Strategy and Management and the Executive Director of the Center for International Higher Education Research at Corvinus University of Budapest, discussing the motivations behind the transformations and the implications for academic freedom and bureaucratic versus political control.