Romanians at Universities in Europe: Historical Perspective and Methodological Aspects
Romanians at Universities in Europe: Historical Perspective and Methodological Aspects

Summary/Abstract: More than 11.341 young Romanians attended European universities between 1424 and 1919. Piecing together the Transylvanian students’ higher education careers requires extensive investigation. Finding the archives is the first step, particularly for those from the former Kingdom of Hungary. These archives were moved to the most unexpected locations following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In most cases, it was particularly challenging to determine the students’ ethnicity. Before the 19th century, students’ ethnic identities were rarely stated in academic archives. Academic records from the middle of the 19th century list denomination and mother tongue, but not ethnicity. In many instances, Romanians from Hungarian-majority areas claimed to speak Hungarian as their mother tongue, but their subsequent biographies revealed that they were, in reality, Romanian. Religious affiliation is another criterion used to determine ethnicity, although it also presented challenges. Romanians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, and Hungarians may be identified as Greek Catholics. The Orthodox faith was shared by the Greeks, Aromanians, Romanians, Serbians, and a few other ethnic groups in the Empire. Since there was an attempt to change name spellings within a Magyarization politics throughout the Dualist Empire, the research technique thus required triangulations of sources, mainly since students’ names were not always useful in identifying the ethnic origin.

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