Unequal Accommodation of Minority Rights by Tamás Kiss István Gergő Székely Tibor Toró Nándor Bárdi & István Horváth

Author:Tamás Kiss, István Gergő Székely, Tibor Toró , Nándor Bárdi & István Horváth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

4.5 Hungarian-Language Higher Education

Romania is a signatory of the Bologna process; accordingly, higher education consists of bachelors’, masters’, and doctoral programs. Besides using the official language of the state, it is possible to organize programs in other international languages, as well as in the vernacular for some of the national minorities (in Hungarian and German language) in institutions specially designated by the EL (called multilingual or multicultural universities). Programs in minority languages may be organized at all three levels (bachelors’, masters’, and doctoral). Similarly to pre-university education, the regulation of higher education also contains a number of positive discrimination measures with regard to minority languages. The EL allows for the establishment of organizational units that operate in minority languages (faculties, educational lines, departments, and study sections) which may function in institutionalized form both at the university level and within faculties and which enjoy (university) autonomy with regard to the organization of teaching activities.43 Financing for these programs is calculated using a higher coefficient.44 In multilingual or multicultural institutions, at least one of the pro-rectors is appointed following the proposal of teaching staff who belong to the minority, and the same applies to at least one vice-dean in faculties that offer tuition (also) in minority languages.45

In the academic year 2014/2015, there were 88 accredited universities in Romania, of which 55 public and 33 private. A further ten private universities were operating with a temporary license. Public universities are financed from the state budget, but they may also charge tuition fees. Accreditation of higher-education institutions is within the competence of The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS).46

Higher education in Hungarian is offered by multiple institutions. A broader spectrum of degree programs is offered by three institutions designated as multicultural by the EL: the Babeș-Bolyai University (located in Cluj but with divisions in several other cities in Transylvania), the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureș, and the University of Arts of Târgu Mureș.47 Besides these, there is one degree program offered at the University of Bucharest (Hungarology) and the University of Oradea (pedagogy of preschool and primary education). There are three private universities which operate in Hungarian: the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania and the Partium Christian University (Oradea) are financed by the Hungarian government; the third is the Protestant Theological Institute of Cluj.48 The Roman Catholic Theological Seminary of Alba Iulia also teaches in Hungarian. Hungarian-language higher-education institutions from Hungary (e.g., Budapest, Debrecen, and Tatabánya) are also present on the educational market with programs that operate in various Transylvanian cities.

Although legal arrangements concerning higher education in the vernacular are quite favorable, and since the late 1990s Hungarian-language higher education underwent a very spectacular expansion, a number of serious problems remain. First, although degree programs in Hungarian are offered in more than 125 specializations in Romania, the offer still covers only about one-third of the specializations that are available in Romanian. Furthermore, the offerings are also rather unbalanced as more than 60% of the specializations fall into the domain of social sciences.

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