Ágoston Sikos
Ágoston Sikos was born and raised in Budapest, and completed his secondary education within the six-year programme of Városmajori Gimnázium, passing his matura examinations in 2022. During these years, he actively participated in community life. For his voluntary work with the Hungarian Special Olympics Association, he was awarded the “Innovator of Inclusion” distinction in recognition of his educational and awareness-raising activities. He is currently an undergraduate student at University College London, reading History, Politics and Economics, and is expected to graduate with first-class honours in June 2025.
Ágoston Sikos
He chose the economics and history track at university, concentrating on economic history, theory, and econometric modelling. Convinced that econometric models remain insufficient without an understanding of global politics, he took advantage of the multidisciplinary structure of his degree, enrolling in security and modern history modules and auditing a postgraduate course on foreign policy. He is writing his dissertation on the United Kingdom’s foreign economic policy towards Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, relying on previously unpublished archival sources, under the supervision of the Head of Programme. In his academic pursuits, he has sought to engage with both faculty and peers, contributing to university life by founding societies, publishing articles, and fostering respectful public debate on campus. As founding president of the World History Society, he has organised a series of speaker events featuring academics from KCL, UCL, and the LSE on policy-making traditions. As economics columnist for UCL’s The Diplomacy Review, he has authored articles on European nuclear energy investment, French-African economic relations, the German economy, and the role of economic considerations in Cold War strategies.
Between 2023 and 2024, he served as Head of Events for the Hungarian Society and remains an active member of the university’s rowing and tennis clubs. In the upcoming academic year, he will continue his studies on the Master’s programme in International Economic Policy at Sciences Po, Paris.
His professional path has been consciously guided by a commitment to understanding economic policy through the lenses of different institutions. He conducted statistical research under the supervision of Professor Gyula Pulay in the Special Analyses Department of the Hungarian State Audit Office. He gained insight into the operations and outlook of the financial sector during an internship in the International Relations and M&A division at MBH Bank, while his diplomatic and trade experience stems from his work at the Hungarian Embassy in London.
In his free time, he enjoys reading historical monographs, playing sports, and studying the piano, a discipline he pursued, alongside music theory and history, for twelve years at the Farkas Ferenc Music School in Hungary.
He will undertake his placement in Washington D.C., where he will serve as an intern in the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Simultaneously, he will attend classes at George Mason University, where he has chosen to study American political thought and economic ideas.
“I hope the Washington experience will not only deepen my practical understanding but also offer a distinct vantage point on the relationship between politics and economics, one that complements, yet differs in substance from, the perspectives he has encountered in Europe. Through the programme, I aim to better understand how policy concepts evolve into legislative proposals and are ultimately translated into operative measures within one of the world’s most complex political systems.” – Ágoston Sikos