Babes-Bolyai University

The University of Cluj was founded through prolonged efforts and repeated attempts to establish an institution for higher education studies in Transylvania, which was an attractive area for the Western Europeans and an arena of religious and, later on, political fights, in the context of the history of our continent.
This evolution was initiated in 1567 with the intention of prince Ioan Sigismund to establish an academy of studies in Sebes (Alba), but it firstly materialized through the initiative of Stefan Bathory in 1581 of laying the foundations (following the establishment of universities in Bratislava, Buda and Tarnovo) of a college in Cluj under the rule of the Jesuits and appointing the Italian Antonio Possevino as rector. This college was later closed down, and the protestants and the Unitarians set the bases of other colleges: in 1692 Gabriel Bethlen established the Calvinist college in Alba Iulia, with a theology, philosophy and language studies profile, this college being run by Alstedt. The Catholics took the initiative again and established, in 1688, an academy in Cluj under the rule of the Jesuits. In an effort of achieving confessional reconciliation, in 1776, Empress Maria Theresa founded a university in German in Cluj. But this enterprise was not to survive long as Joseph II replaced the university with the famous Piarist high school, where the teaching was done in Latin.
In the context of the 1848 changes, the issue of setting up a university in the national language was explicitly raised. The Romanians, the majority population in Transylvania, asked for a university in Romanian. Among the then Hungarian leaders, the minister Eotvos suggested in 1868 the creation in Cluj of a university in which the teaching would be held in Hungarian, Romanian and German, and a part of the Romanian elite supported the proposal. But in 1872 the authorities established the University of Cluj exclusively in Hungarian, which caused the discontent of the Romanian majority. At the end of World War I, against the background of the Great Unification, the University of Cluj, just like the universities in Strasbourg and Bratislava, was taken over by the state authorities, becoming a Romanian institution. On May 12, 1919 the Romanian University of Cluj was established, and its courses were initiated on November 3, 1919 by Vasile Parvan with an inaugural address entitled "The Duty of Our Life", king Ferdinand I solemnly proclaiming the university on February 1, 1920. The new university was placed by the king of Romania under the motto which, imprinted in marble, guarded the entrance to its central building: "Dedicated to truth, through justice - the only elements leading to an agreement among the different people of the world, this site of great culture will be useful to people and to humanity, honoring itself and honoring us as well through its scientific work".
In 1940, as a result of the territorial revision imposed by the then Germany and Italy, the Romanian university was moved to Sibiu and Timisoara, and the Hungarian university was brought from Szeged to Cluj. After World War II, following the abrogation of the Vienna Dictate, the Romanian university returned to Cluj and took the name of "Babes". In 1945 the Romanian authorities established in Cluj the Hungarian university named "Bolyai". The two universities were reunited in 1956 under the name Babes-Bolyai University, where the teaching was done in Romanian and Hungarian. Subsequently, under the Ceausescu regime, the studies in Hungarian were gradually reduced.
In December 1989, in the Babes-Bolyai University there was a very active movement of young students and academic staff with the purpose of recovering the professional and democratic tradition of the university and to reform the institution. The starting point of the new dynamics of the university was represented by the proclamation "For a New University of Dacia Superior" and the subsequent active action of many Romanian, Hungarian, German and Jewish academics, dominated by the preoccupation to re-establish the prevalence of professionalism in the university and to integrate it in the world of the free world values.
The development of the University of Cluj can be illustrated through synthetic data of its evolution establishing as reference points the years 1938, 1970, 1989, 1992, and 1999.
In 1938, the University of Cluj had 3,094 students in four faculties, taught by 115 members of the academic staff (4 honorary professors, 84 full-time professors, 29 associate professors, senior lecturers, assistants) and 245 lecturers, and teaching assistants. Up to that point, the Central University Library, the Academic College, the University Office, the Publishing Office, the University extension, the Institute for Experimental Psychology, the Sports Park and other units had been established.
In 1971, the Babes-Bolyai University reached the maximum figure of its post-war development, having 14,438 students in 8 faculties, and 36 specializations under the guidance of 648 members of the academic staff. Meanwhile, the university built the student homes in the Hasdeu Complex. After 1971, as a result of the erroneous university policy of the Ceausescu regime, the Babes-Bolyai University was dramatically reduced. In 1989 the number of students in our university dropped to 5,940 studying in 7 faculties with 19 specializations (programmes) under the guidance of 626 academic staff members.
In 1992 the Babes-Bolyai University recreated the structure of specializations it had had during the peak period of its previous development. The number of students reached 12,247 studying in 11 faculties and 55 specializations, under the guidance of 826 academic staff members.
Since 1993, the most comprehensive and the strongest development in the history of the University of Cluj has been recorded. Our university is now the most diversified (in terms of specializations) and the most complex higher education institution in Romania. In 1996 the building of the new campus was initiated, and in 1999 the building of the new complex of student homes. In 2004 the Babes-Bolyai University reached the greatest development in its entire history.
The above-mentioned development has undergone many crucially important decisions and radically new initiatives regarding the organization of studies, the development of scientific research, the extension of the community services offered, the modernizing of the infrastructure, the creation of the modern communication network, the involvement of the Babes-Bolyai University in the democratization and transition of Romania. The decision of transforming the Babes-Bolyai University into a prestigious university of Central and Eastern Europe (1994), a university of intellectual, civic, and moral commitment for the democratization of Romania and for the Euro-Atlantic integration (1993), of massively expanding the infrastructure investments (1996), of reorganization according to a multilingual and multicultural profile (1995), of transforming it into a relevant institution in the international system of universities (2000), of confronting the conditions of globalization with new initiatives (2003) have been among the crucially important decisions for the current profile of the Babes-Bolyai University.