| "Babeș-Bolyai" University | |
|---|---|
| Universitatea "Babeș-Bolyai" | |
Seal of the Babeș-Bolyai University |
|
| Latin: Universitas Napocensis | |
| Motto | Traditio Nostra Unacum Europae Virtutibus Splendet |
| Established | 1581/1959 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | $121,947,739[1] |
| Rector | Andrei Marga |
| President of The Academical Consilium | Şerban Agachi |
| Academic staff | 1,700 |
| Students | 49,619[2] |
| Location | Cluj-Napoca, Romania |
| Former names | Superior Dacia University King Ferdinand I University University of Cluj |
| Nickname | Babeș |
| Website | www.ubbcluj.ro |
The Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB—Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Hungarian: Babeș-Bolyai Tudományegyetem) in Cluj-Napoca is an university in Romania. With almost 50,000 students, the university offers 105 specialisations; 105 are available in Romanian , and also 67 of them in Hungarian , 17 in German and 5 in English. The university was named after prominent scientists from Transylvania, Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babeș and Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai.
Contents |
The main campus is located in the city of Cluj-Napoca, with the university buildings are spread across the city. The university has several student housing areas, most notable being Haşdeu with more than 20 dormitories buildings. The Lucian Blaga University Library is located in the city centre. The university also has several colleges located in 18 cities spread across Transylvania.
In 1581, István Báthory, prince of Transylvania, founded a college in Kolozsvár (now, Cluj-Napoca ) which was to be under the control of the Jesuits. This college was later closed down, but the Catholics in 1688 established an academy in the city also under Jesuit control. In 1776, Empress Maria Theresa founded a university in the city.
In 1872, the Hungarian Minister of Education, József Eötvös presented to the Hungarian Parliament a project of a new university to be founded either in Pozsony (present Bratislava) or Kolozsvár. After long debates on financial concern the Hungarian Parliament voted for the latter. Thus, the authorities established a university in Kolozsvár with teaching in Hungarian, except for the Romanian language and literature section. In 1881 the university was renamed Franz Joseph University after the Habsburg Emperor and King of Hungary Franz Joseph.
On May 12, 1919, after the Union of Transylvania with Romania, the new Romanian University of Cluj (initially named Superior Dacia University, then, King Ferdinand I University) was set up; the courses were inaugurated on November 3, 1919, by Vasile Pârvan with a lecture entitled "The Duty of Our Life". On February 1, 1920, King Ferdinand I solemnly proclaimed the university open.
In 1921, the Hungarian Franz Joseph University moved from Cluj, first to Budapest, then to Szeged.
In 1940, as a result of the Second Vienna Award, the city was ceded to Hungary; the Hungarian Franz Joseph University returned from Szeged to Cluj, while the University of Cluj was moved to Sibiu and Timişoara. Once the Second Vienna Award was abrogated following the end of World War II, and Cluj returned to Romania, parts of the Hungarian university moved back to Szeged.
In 1945, the Romanian university also returned to Cluj and renamed Babeș University. In the meantime, the Romanian authorities established a new Hungarian university, named Bolyai University.[3]
In 1959, the Communist authorities decided to merge the two universities into one, named Babeș-Bolyai University, with teaching in both languages. Tthe Hungarian community in Transylvania considered this to undermine their interests, and it led to the suicide of the Hungarian pro-rector[4] and a professor,[5] was orchestrated by Nicolae Ceauşescu, the former Romanian dictator, and Ion Iliescu, his successor as president. Later on, under the Communist regime, the studies in Hungarian were gradually reduced.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 in which ethnic Hungarians had a major role, Hungarian language education at the university was expanded by increasing the number of specializations in Hungarian. In addition, specializations taught in German and English have been introduced.
The university is now the most diversified (in terms of specializations) and the most complex higher education institution in Romania.
The university has 21 faculties and over 1,700 faculty members. The University offers bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees, along with advanced postgraduate studies.
The university is located in an ethnically diverse area and this is very well illustrated in its structure: 19 of the 21 faculties provide a Romanian curriculum; 17 of them provide a Hungarian curriculum; 9 of them provide a German curriculum and 6 of them provide an English curriculum. The Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology and the Faculty of Protestant Theology provide courses only in Hungarian. Graduate schools offer the same multilingual structure. The Hungarian and German minorities are also proportionately represented in the Professors' Council and the University Senate.
Babeș-Bolyai University has more than 45,000 students. The structure of the student body is composed out of 3,000 Ph.D. students, 500 international students, 4,300 secondary education teachers, and 38,000 undergraduates. Here is the list of the faculties, along with the languages in which their courses are taught—(RO-Romanian, HU-Hungarian, DE-German,FR-French, EN-English).
Nationlly, the Babes-Bolyai University was ranked, as concerning research, as the first in Romania (2002-2011), based on article influence score (Web of Science), by Ad-Astra Association of Romanian Scientists [1], followed by Bucharest University. In a 2009 ranking regarding the impact of universities on professional market (i.e., credibility and attractiveness), the University was ranked number 1 in Romania in 2009 by the German company Kienbaum Management Consultants and Capital magazine.[6], with the University of Bucharest the second.
Internationally, in the 2011 URAP international ranking, the University was ranked first in Romania based on top academic indicators, again followed by Bucharest University [2]. Babes-Bolyai is also in the top Quacquarelli Symonds ranking (known from The Times Higher Education Supplement), the University was placed in 2011 on the position 601+, being thus among best 1000 universities of the world;[7] the University of Bucharest is placed in 2011 at the same position (601+) in the QS ranking.
The Hungarian section enrolls nearly 7200 students in 67 BA programmes; the university is thus the principal institution that educates members of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. However, the establishment of additional Hungarian faculties has been impeded several times, albeit asked by more than 80% of the Hungarian professors. Most recently, on 22 February 2006, the University Senate neglected the demand of 149 Hungarian professors. Moreover, the Hungarian language cannot be used as a language of formal communication within the University.
The Hungarian section of the University has a partial autonomy, gradually increasing in the recent years. However, in the opinion of the Council of the Hungarian section, those members appointed by the Hungarian speaking teaching staff desire a more institutionalized form of autonomy. Since University decision-making is based on majority vote of the entire faculty, the therefore Hungarian representatives in minority can always be silenced by this procedure.
The Hungarian language is used in academical communication, as a teaching language, but also used in public relations, tutorials, and in some written posters and communications, but the legends, inscriptions, and classroom labels are only in Romanian, so the image and the feeling is not of a truly multilingual university.
In November 2006, Dr. Péter Hantz and Dr. Lehel Kovács, lecturers at the Babeș-Bolyai University, were discharged by the university after a series of actions started in October 2005 taken for language equality,. They were campaigning for the re-organizationof the Bolyai University by splitting the Babes-Bolyai University in two independent institutions. On 22 November 2006, the University organized an exhibition in the European Parliament, where they tried to give the impression that there are multilingual signs at the University. That day, Dr. Péter Hantz added signs at the University like "Information" and "No smoking" in Hungarian alongside those ones in Romanian,.[8] The two acted upon a decree permitting the use of multilingual signs, which had been decreed by the university but never put in practice, and official claims that the university is a multicultural institution with three working languages (Romanian, German and Hungarian).[9] On 27 November 2006, the Senate voted for exclusion of the two lecturers, with 72 for and 9 against (from 2 Romanian and 7 Hungarian members) votes. The Hungarian academic community is convinced that the exclusion was not a disciplinary action, but the vote was not ethnic based. In spite of various protests, the resignation out of solidarity by several Hungarian-speaking university staff, and a call by 24 Hungarian Member of the European Parliament for the reinstatement of the lecturers, they remained unemployed.[8] The parties in the Hungarian Parliament asked the university to reinstate the two professors and respect the rights of the Hungarian minority. The presidents of the five parties represented in the Hungarian parliament signed a statement of protest. Istvan Hiller, Education Minister of Hungary, also wrote to his Romanian counterpart Mihail Hărdău, asking for his help on the issue.[9] The case has also been put forward in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Göran Lindblad, from the Swedish European People’s Party, along with 24 signatories from 19 European countries, presented a motion for a resolution on the alleged breaching of the 1994 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by the Romanian Government.[10]
|
|||||