Southeast Europe

administer their own private educational units and institutions” have been included.
Articles 10 and 14 also provide the possibility to learn in the mother tongue. “In the
state-owned vocational, secondary and post-secondary specialised schools, education
can be provided in the mother tongue, on request, under the law, on condition that the
specialised terminology is taught in Romanian.” (Art.122).
Art.123 stipulated, (1) “groups, departments, colleges and faculties in national
minorities’ languages could be established on request within state-owned universities,
under legal circumstances”. In this case, specific terminology would be provided in the
Romanian language. Multicultural higher education institutions could be established on
request, in conformity with the law. (2) “Individuals belonging to the national minorities
were accorded the right to establish and administer their own private higher education
institutions, in conformity with the law.” The same applied to state-owned “higher
education groups, departments, colleges, faculties and institutes of education”, and a
provision was included that “on request, Romanian specialists shall be encouraged to be
trained in the languages of national minorities.”
The question of university entrance examinations was addressed once again, this time
with no mention of the Romanian language: “In the education system, at all degrees and
levels, admission and graduation examinations can be taken in the language in which
those subjects were taught” (Government of Romania: 14 July, 1997).
The Romanian education system is almost entirely state-sponsored. The education of the
national minorities depends on the general education system. At present, there are
tendencies to establish confessional and/or privately funded higher educational
institutions. At the general level we can say that the percentage of Hungarian scholars
has been constantly decreasing since 1990 (Papp, 1998). This is valid for both schoollevel
and university education.
Hungarian students at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj (Papp, 1998) and (*The
Ethos of Education for National Minorities in Romania 1999/2000)
Students Hungarian Students
Academic year Total Number %
1989-1990 3,007 661 21.98
1990-1991 7,342 1,357 18.48
1991-1992 9,257 1,570 16.96
1992-1993 12,082 1,917 15.86
1995-1996 16,825 2,682 15.94
1999-2000* 22,727 4,904 21.57
Questions regarding education are the most delicate. Political representatives of the
Hungarians consider that in the long run the only way to preserve national identity is to
reproduce intellectuals. They believe that this can be done only if a separate Hungarian
university is established. They explain that only in this case will Hungarians send their
children to Hungarian schools.
No state-funded Hungarian higher education has been established. However, there are
classes taught in Hungarian within the “Babeş-Bolyai” University in Cluj with 39
specialisations; within the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Târgu Mureş with
specialisations in medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy; and within the “Szentgyörgyi
István” Drama Academy in Tîrgu Mureş. In the 1999 academic year colleges with
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