Following the end of the 1956 Revolution, a significant number of university students fled Hungary and the human capital flooding into Austria drew the attention of universities worldwide. The cold war and its influence on international student organisations and on the domestic conceptualisation of refugees in the USA contextualise this case study of 18 Hungarian student refugees. Communist reform of the education system fuelled Hungarian student discontent; following the collapse of the revolution many students fled to Austria where student and non-government organisations in Austria and the USA worked to screen them. Student organisations sourced scholarships for the refugee students in the USA in tandem with philanthropic organisations. A parallel effort was developed involving covert CIA activities for information-gathering purposes. However, not all students were able to realise their ambitions and CIA activities raise questions around researcher integrity and the breaching of research ethics.