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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Central European University confirmed Monday that it will move its U.S.-accredited degree programs from Budapest to Vienna from next September, as Hungary's government is refusing to sign an agreement allowing it to stay.

CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff said Monday that the university "has been forced out."

Ignatieff called it an "unprecedented" act against an American university by a NATO ally and against a European university by a member of the European Union.

CEU's ouster is part of populist, anti-immigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ideological battle against Hungarian-American financier and CEU founder George Soros and his "open society" model.

The university said it would retain "accreditation as a Hungarian university and ... continue teaching and research activity in Budapest as long as possible."