THOUSANDS of people formed a human chain from Hungary’s University of Theatre & Film Arts to the parliament building in Budapest on Sunday in protest at a government takeover.

Protesters say that the imposition of a new board led by Attila Vidnyanszky, a key supporter of authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is an attack on the institution’s autonomy and academic freedom.

Students have occupied the university building for the past week and many of its top professors have resigned.

The government has denied claims that it is trying to stifle freedom of expression, insisting that privatisation will make the academic institution more “competitive.”

But Mr Vidnyanszky said on Tuesday that he wanted a “different kind of thinking” at the university, adding that existing classes would be kept, with some emphasis placed on patriotism and Christianity.

It is the seventh institution to be transferred to private foundations with a board of directors chosen by the government.

The 155-year-old university counts several Oscar winners among its graduates, including Casablanca director Michael Curtiz and Vilmos Zsigmond, the cinematographer for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Last year the Central European University in Budapest moved most of its courses to Vienna, saying it could no longer “operate as a free institution” in Hungary.