Bíró Judit: Magántanárok a Pesti Tudományegyetemen 1848-1952 - Fejezetek az Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem történetéből 12. (Budapest, 1990)
Jegyzetek
153 Judit Bíró: Privatdozents' at the Budapest University Between 1848 and 1952 there was a special teaching position at Hungarian universities: that of the Privatdozents (privat professors). Those functioning as Privatdozents had acquired doctoral degrees, and received permissions to teach at universities ('venia legendi') after undergoing a Privatdozents' training period ('Habilitatio'). In possession of these permissions they could give non-compulsory lectures or hold seminary classes for students - similar to the optional classes called 'special colleges' in the European educational system. The Privatdozents did not hold permanent jobs at universities: they drew no salaries, though received part of the tuition fees ('lesson money'). Their teaching activities did not carry pensions and they had no right to participate or vote in the various authorities or administrative bodies of universities. They had only one right: to teach, which was also their duty and a pre-condition for keeping their university position. The person formulating the Privatdozents' powers was József Eötvös, a baron, who, in a social and economic environment undergoing a bourgeois development, tried to lay the legal foundations for such an institution in higher education, which is irreplacable with its intellectual capital or professional competence , and so becomes a privileged body. In this process he attributed a catalyst's role to Privatdozents: he thought the university teachers, who held their permanent positions at university departments as feudal estates, could be challenged by these educators who injected fresh blood into university life both by their competence, mentality and by the fact that they were not part of the hierarchy. He expected-the traditional and authoritarian university structure to be renewed by opening it up to the progressive bourgeois part of society. However, in the next hundred years it came to light that most members of this institution, and the institution as such, which had originally been created with the idea of raising and passing on ideas, proved incapable of progressive development and modernization - curiously baching up the existence of harmful trends prevailing in this part of Europe. Privatdozents were simply assimilated by the university structure and adapted their way of thinking to the professors' mentality. The leading educational bodies in power at the turn of the 40s and 50s abolished the Privatdozents' position, which had lost its function by that time. The Privatdozents themselves were either dismissed or had to join retraining schemes.
