A Century of Romanian Higher Education in Cluj. The Beginnings
Article information:
Volume IV 2020, No 1, Pages: 5-17
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24193/JRHE.2020.1.1
Ioana-Mihaela Bonda, Scientific Researcher, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Email: ioanabonda@yahoo.com
Cecilia Cârja, Scientific Researcher, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Email: ceciliacarja@yahoo.it
Abstract: The organization of the University of Upper Dacia in Cluj was the result of an admirable solidarity of the Romanian academic environment. Prestigious names from the universities of Bucharest and Iași ral lied around the project of establishing a Romanian higher education institution right in the heart of Transylvania. The phenomenon is not surprising. A simple look at the historical process of organizing the Romanian universities in the Old Kingdom shows that both the educational institutions from Iași and Bucharest owed their systematization and progress to some Transylvanians as well. They applied the principle they adhered to and upheld, according to which the evolution of a nation can be done only through culture. They were convinced that only in this way could a dialogue with the great European nations be reached. Thus, they put the theory into practice. Therefore, the inter-Romanian university mobility took place, initially, from Transylvania to the Romanian extra-Carpathian territory. Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, the meaning of this movement was reversed, i.e. from the Old Kingdom to Transylvania. In 1919, when they were asked to contribute with their experience and expertise to the organization of Romanian higher education in Cluj, the teachers of the universities of Iași and Bucharest answered affirmatively. Our approach highlights the contribution of these teachers to the organization of Alma Mater Napocensis.
Keywords: universities, Cluj, Iași, Bucharest, professors, Romanian higher education, academic mobility
