FUTURE
Participants (29): agnes, Peter_Hantz, pentek, kasa, lnagy, avillalonga, barkats, Kalman, ori, istvan, unifel2, mstrubell,
peter_juhasz, jirmijah, pentek, ainhoa, gyapayg, Tamas_Juhasz, penteki, mfulop, klehel, varganora, iren, fekete, ABOA,
denes, bakk, bpalmada, lochner.
What about the future?
If you think this online conference is a good thing, let's think about its future.
We wish to develop the database. So, we would appreciate your contribution to the
improvement of the quality of our work by expressing your opinion about it.
Which questions you think are the most interesting, and what kind of questions would you like
to see in the next questionnaire?
What about this online discussion? Would you like to have it in the future in the same
way, and if so, on which topics?
How do you like the photo gallery?
What kind of other online actions, exhibitions, etc., would be useful to present certain
aspects of minority education?
We also plan to organize a 'real' conference in this field. What sort of agenda would you
suggest for a real conference? What period of the academic year would be most suitable for
you to take part? What kind of support would your university need in order to be able to send
delegates to a real conference?
Finally, please take the time and tell us which part of this initiative did you like most and
why? What was useful and why?
Real conference
[16:15] kasa | professor | Babes-Bolyai Cluj
A database on minority education is welcome. A permanent homepage on this too. I found the photo gallery
very interesting. Please, compare the different universities!
A real conference between other on-line conferences will be, in my opinion, very useful.
[16:19] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
Yes, we have good chances to organize a real conference, moreover a series of conferences. I was advised
to apply, together with other organizations interested in minority higher education, to the EU for a conference
series. We will do this in the next months.
[17:17] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
I FACED A MAJOR PROBLEM AS ORGANIZER.
I was unable to contact some universities, and even if I managed to contact them, they were very passive.
[17:28] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
We would like to broaden the scientific, as well as the organizing committee. Please do not hesitate to write
me if you could take part in the future work.
We are also looking for regional workmates who could contact the minority universities in their region, and
could persuade them to fill the present/future databases, and could keep in touch with the surrounding
universities.
I would be very grateful if some of you could accept such a 'position'.
[18:15] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
I'm asking my question again
Could somebody help me in contacting further universities in Catalonia, Basque Country, Finland, Wales,
and FYROM?
[18:20] mstrubell | ex-director, Humanities degree programme | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
I can help you, Peter, find universities in Catalonia, Basque Country, Wales. Not FYROM I'm afraid (I know
the OSCE was involved in a project to start up an Albanian-language university there, but I'm not sure how it
has developed. And Finland? Perhaps Vaasa would be a good idea to contact. ...
Maybe the best thing would be for you to write to me mstrubell@uoc.edu and I'll send you some ideas.
All the Catalan-medium universities, including Perpinyà, are linked through the Institut Joan-Luís
Vives, www.vives.org so they would be a good place to start.
[18:22] ainhoa | postgraduate and european topisc manager | BASQUE SUMMER UNIVERSITY
Ian Ainhoa from the Basque country, I saw that you contacted with some other "Basque" universities... but
today they are no here... I think that I can help you, but I need to know which type of contact you have already
done...
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[18:32] mstrubell | ex-director, Humanities degree programme | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
As to the future: a suggestion. It would be very easy to set up a distribution list through, for example,
www.yahoogroups.com in order to share information and keep touch with people in each of the universities that
expressed their interest in the conference and others that can be invited to join.
I have started several and they are very easy to manage.
[18:34] kasa | professor | Babes-Bolyai Cluj
As I see, there are a lot of problems to solve (mainly in the east part of Europe) and 4 hours are not enough.
What about a real conference (a 2 or 3 days one, where much more discussion can be made). In what
conditions can you participate at a such conference? And when?
[18:34] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
Yes, we will set up the list in the next days.
[18:38] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
What sort of agenda would you suggest for a real conference?
What period of the academic year would be most suitable for you to take part?
What kind of support would your university need in order to be able to send delegates to a real conference?
Travel costs? Accomodation costs? Both?
[18:40] fekete | PhD Student | Babes-Bolyai University
would be possible te organize next sprig a real conference on the topic of higher education of national
minorities / for example in Kolozsvar /.
Are the other participants to this online conference interested?
[18:49] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
Wherever it the conference is organised we need visa, and it's not simple for us to get it. As we see mainly
Hungarian minorities living in Carpathian Basin applied for this conference their future depends on Hungary and
the neighboring countries. Our situation and numerous previous propositions are familiar to both sides, we
consider it is high time to act.
[18:52] bpalmada | Vicerectora de Docčncia | Universitat de Girona
Fell free to contact me if you need help in contacting universities in Catalonia.
A suggestion for the future: You could open it to a specific group of students in order to build a common view
of the linguistic aspects of the Bologna Process.
[19:02] peter_juhasz | organizer | Organizing Committee
I suggest to gather an offline, long term group of specialists working on the Charter. They could work as an
email group, and organizers should focus on representation of all traditional national minorities within this group.
[19:25] kasa | professor | Babes-Bolyai Cluj
The place of a real conference can be choose after a consultation with all interested universities. I like to be
in Kolozsvár, but for Ucrainenain and Serbian citizens maybe is easier to go in Hungary as in Transylvania.
[19:50] iren | Full Professor | Faculty of Economics Subotica
Dear Participants,
We would like to thank you for the discussion and a possibility to share ideas and experiences with you.
We would like to stay in touch with you. Our e-mail adress: slavica@eccf.su.ac.yu
With best wishes: Iren Gabrity Molnar and Agnes Slavic from Serbia
[19:57] mstrubell | ex-director, Humanities degree programme | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
I hope that you will inform the news agency on minority languages about this initiative.
http://www.eurolang.net
Editor in Chief
Dr Davyth A. Hicks
mailto:davythhicks@yahoo.co.uk
Brussels Office: Simone Klinge
mailto:simone@eblul.org
49 Rue Saint Josse / Sint-Jooststraat,
B-1210 Bruxelles / Brussel,
België / Belgique
tel + 32 (0) 2 250 31 61
fax + 32 (0) 2 218 19 74
[19:59] mstrubell | ex-director, Humanities degree programme | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
I too am leaving the chat-rooms. Thank you for your company and your interesting ideas.
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Before elaving allow me to convey to you the greetings of Emma Kiselyova, who is responsible for
International Relations at our university, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and who could not unfortunately
join the meeting today. I will willingly pass on to her any requests from participants. Please contact me at
mailto:mstrubell@uoc.edu.
Goodbye and good luck!
Bolyai University
[16:28] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
I would kindly ask you to read the Position below, and if you agree, please send me an e-mail, and write in its
subject "I agree with the Bolyai Position"
Position on the re-establishment of the Hungarian public university in Romania
Just before Romania’s accession to the European Union, it is time to express our concern about
Romania’s discriminative policies against the minorities.
Higher education plays an essential role in the social, economic and cultural development of all groups
of people. Although most of national minority groups in Europe are allowed to establish and run their own
higher education institutions financial supported by the given countries, Romania still denies this right of the
Hungarian minority in Transylvania.
This attitude is inconceivable, especially as higher education in minority languages has proven to be
successful, and minority higher education institutions contributed substantially not only to the development
of the minority groups, but also to the advancement of their respective states.
A multicultural university is defined as an institution where all working languages are equal, all students
and professors know and speak freely these languages, and an atmosphere of mutual respect prevails.
Unfortunately, this definition cannot be applied to any of the state universities in Romania. Moreover,
Romanian authorities use this term as a smokescreen to cover the discriminative measures applied to the
Hungarian minority.
With this in view, the participants at the First European Conference on Higher Education for National
Minorities urge that immediate steps be taken to re-establish the Bolyai University at ClujNapoca/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg.
[16:34] mstrubell | ex-director, Humanities degree programs | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
I think we would all like to know a little more about the original Bolyai University at ClujNapoca/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, and when and why it was closed down.
[16:41] lnagy | vicerector | Babes-Bolyai University
I, as the vice rector of the Babes-Bolyai University from Cluj/Kolozsvar, Romania, do not agree with the
position expressed by Peter Hantz. See my contribution at the Charta section.
[16:43] kasa | professor | Babes-Bolyai Cluj
The first modern university in Cluj (Kolozsvár) was established in 1872, having Hungarian as its language of
tuition. This was in fact the second university of the Hungarian Kingdom. In 1919 it was confiscated by the
Romanian authorities (one year before the Treaty of Trianon was signed). The Hungarian professors had to
leave Cluj, and moved to Szeged, where a new university was founded. In the buildings of the university a
Romanian language university was established. Between 1940 and 1944 the Romanian university was moved
to Timisoara and Sibiu and the Hungarian university was re-established. After the Second World War, in the
autumn of the year 1944, after the return of the Romanian university, there were two universities in Cluj. Later
the Romanian university was named after the Romanian physician Victor Babes (Victor Babes University) and
the Hungarian one after the Hungarian mathematicians János and Farkas Bolyai (Bolyai University).
The Babes-Bolyai University was founded in 1959 through a merging by force of these two institutions, which
caused the suicide of several Hungarian professors. Over the years the education in Hungarian language was
forced back step by step, until the moment when in 1989 only a few courses were held in Hungarian. After 1990
several new specializations (fields, majors) were promoted, yet a major change came only in 1993, when the
Ministry of Education allocated distinct enrolment figures for those willing to study in Hungarian.
[17:01] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
I will list some common misleading arguments against the Bolyai University, as well as their refutes. Please
consult the comments of the organizers attached to the Babes-Bolyai University's questionnaire.
www.conf.bolyai-u.ro -> databases -> Hungarian minority You can also have a look on the Picture gallery of
the babes-Bolyai University.
X. The Babes-Bolyai University is a true multi-cultural university, which not only satisfies the European
norms, but also serves as a prime example.
A. Max van der Stoel, head of European Securit Organization’s National Minority department, in his
letters to the then dean Andrei Marga, repeatedly highlighted the problem of complete lack of Hungarian
language signs at the universtiy, as well as the uni-lingual nature of all the university’s official
publications and diplomas. He made his recommendations for funding minority education, however, these
problems still have not been resolved. Through preventing the establishment of independent faculties, BabesBolyai University not only offends ESO’s recommendation in regards to minority education, but also offends
article 123 of the educational law.
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X. Supporters of the independent university seek ethnic segregation.
A. Leaders of the Hungarian faculty have repeatedly emphasized that the independent university would only
be Hungarian in respect to language of instruction, while ethnical identity of students, teachers, and staff would
not be a condition for admittance and hiring. Both the admissions and hiring processes would be based on
language competency and professional expertise. Even today there are Romanian nationalities attending the
Hungarian faculty of BBTE, thus we can rule out ethnic segregation.
X. The majority of BBTE’s teaching staff does not wish either the establishment of Bolyai University, or the
establishment of Hungarian faculties within BBTE.
A. BBTE has not conducted any surveys in regards to the establishment of Bolyai University or of Hungarian
faculties at BBTE, only within the circle of Hungarian teachers, whose vast majority supports the independence
initiative.
[18:15] fekete | PhD Student | Babes-Bolyai University
The re-establishment of the independent Hungarian State University (Bolyai University) was, and still is, the
major wish of the Hungarians of Transsylvania since the changes of 1989. For example, 700.000 of 1.700.000
(the total number of Hungarian minorities) Transsylvanian Hungarians signed the petition, which required this
re-establishment and sent to the European Parliament.
Because this re-establishment was never accepted, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania
(DAHR, RMDSZ) decided in 1996 to leave the govern, causing a governmental crisis. No success has been
registered ever since.
We think, that NOW (before our entrance in the EU, together with the implementation of Bologna process) is
the moment to re-establish the Bolyai University.
Higher education of minority
[16:38] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
We agree with the importance of higher education of minority. In Ukraine it is allowed to organize higher
educational establishments but it is not supported financially by the state. We consider that as minorities are
also citizens of the country therefore the state should support minority education at all levels financially.
[17:30] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
On the contrary to Transsylvania, in the modern Transcarpathia (wich was a part of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy, Czheslovakia, Hungary, Soviet Ukrainian Republic. Since 1991 it has been part of independent
Ukraine) there have never been any higher educational establishment for minorities.
[17:30] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
The first period of Hungarian higher education in Transcarpathia began in 1953 at the Uzhgorod Teacher’s
College where a new specialization tier was opened - Hungarian language and literature studies. But the
institution was closed down in 1954, and the students of the college (among them those who studied Hungarian
language and literature) because the students of Uzhhorod State University, which was established in 1945.
The second period began in 1963 when the Hungarian Philology Department was founded at Uzhgorod State
University
[17:31] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
In 1993 three organizations ( Trancarpatian Cultural Organisation, Trancarpathian Pedagogical Association
and Trancarpathian Hungarian Protesant Church) established the Foundation for Trancarpathian Hungarian
College, the college in 1994 began its work wiht Teacher Training College of Nyiregyhaza. Since1996 it has
been functioning as an independent Ukrainian Institute. In 2003 it was renamed to Ferenc Rakoczi II. At the
moment there are 1000 students at the institute at 22 faculties. The Institute issues degrees acknowledged by
the Ukrainian State. After four years of training the institute issues a Bachelor’s Degree, after five years of
training the students obtain the Specialist Degree which is a middle level between the Bachelors and Masters
Degree and it equals to a Ukrainian university degree. Our institute is accredited by the Ukrainian State but
according to the Ukrainian Laws the state doesn’t supported financially. Our main sponsor is the Ministry of
Education of Hungary but the money provided by them is not enough for running the institute.
[17:41] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
We are continuously searching for sponsors in order to maintain the establishment as the students and their
parents can’t afford paying the fees. In our opinion a possible solution might be that the Hungarian and
Ukrainian States should both contribute to the maintenance of our institute.
[17:53] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
Why your university does not get financing from the Ukrainian state?
[17:58] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
We don't get financing from the Ukrainian State because they finance only universities and institutes
established by the Ukrainian State unlike in Hungary where the universities and institutes established not by the
state get financing from the state on the equal level.
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[18:08] Peter_Hantz | Secretary, Head of the Education Committee | Hungarian National Council of
Transylvania
I think this is a discrimination not only against the Hungarian minority, but also against the institutions
founded by the Churches.
Did you try to change this law?
The new government does not support your ideas?
[18:13] iren | Full Professor | Faculty of Economics Subotica
We think that each participant will have to make a presentation about themselves, their experiences about
multilingual education with the aim to share ideas and experiences.
And it to be present on this webpage.
[18:23] ori | president | Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute named after F. Rákóczi II
Our information as to Churces and other minorities is trueexcept for the Russian.
The Russians can study on their native tongue on any levels (they form 20 percent of the population of the
whole country). All the other minorities live in Ukraine in lower number, so it seems as if there were first and
second-class minorities.
There is only one representative of the Hungarian minority in the Parliament and any suggestions made by
us are not supported on the proper level.
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