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Andor earned his degree in Hungarian language and literature and philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University in 1971. Afterwards, he took a course in sociology organized by András Hegedűs at the Institute of Continuing Engineering Education. Between 1979-1973 he was a corporate sociologist at the Volán (Hungarian regional bus company), and then an intellectual freelancer between 1973-1975. From 1975 to 1978, Andor was as a researcher at the Science Management Group of the Ministry of Culture, while also working (between 1976-1977), with official request, at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party. In 1978 Andor became a research associate and in 1980 a scientific head of department at the Cultural Research Institute. From 1992 to 2006 Andor was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since 1996, he has been a member of the board of trustees of the book series Discovering Hungary. After the regime change Andor became active in politics: he was an education expert of the parliamentary group of the Association of Free Democrats between 1992-1994, and later a member of the professional consulting group of the minister of culture and education between 1994-1998, an external member of the Education Committee of the General Assembly of Budapest from 1994 to 2006, and a member of the board of trustees of the Budapest Public Foundation for the Development of Public Education.
His research areas: sociology of education, sociology of settlements. Andor is the author of numerous books and studies, and an editor of the journal Iskolakultúra (school culture).
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