Walleshausen Gyula: A magyaróvári agrárfelsőoktatás 175 éve (1818-1913) (Mosonmagyaróvár, 1993)

10. A Pannon Agrártudományi Egyetem, Mezőgazdaságtudományi Kar, Mosonmagyaróvár - napjainkban

The endowment given by the Ministry of Agriculture did not cover the expenses for maintenance and function of the Academy. Many students suffered in difficult living conditions, therefore, the teaching staff together with the youth organization asked the landowners to support them with any kind of food supplies. The building of the boarding house in 1929 was of great significance. The Academy was barely over its economical troubles when it again had to face hard times caused by the universal slump. The number of students sank rapidly — only 76 new matriculates were counted in the 1932/33 academic year. The expansion of the training period to four years was urged in vain. It was a great problem during the 30s that the presentation of the latest scientific research could not be completed within the three-year-period.

The unfair distribution of land increased social tension from the mid 30s, but the group of conservative great landowners continued to hinder — as with any other reform — the agrarian reform as well.

V. (1942—1945)

The famous educational institution finally became a college with a four-year educational period 125 years after its foundation. The new educational system included studies that could earlier only be a part of the lectures of the youth association (such as social politics, pedagogy, methods of management advising etc.). The first-year students of the college had just finished their studies when the front swept through the country.

VI. (1945-1949)

After clearing away the ruins, a new life was started. After fast and radical agrarian reform the college started to find new ways and wanted to adjust the curriculum to the new requirements. When the college was finally given the long desired university status, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences was situated in Mosonmagyaróvár; but still belonged to a university system that included every higher educational institution (faculties, colleges, and academies) of the country, among them all agricultural, horticultural and veterinary institutions. This situation supported the Bolsheviks’ very strict control and centralization system. At the same time several prominent teachers and lecturers were forbidden to teach or were dismissed under various pretexts. The developing dictatorship infracted all regulations and the universities’ autonomy. In the case of promoting new teachers for example, the relevent faculty members were not consulted at all. Whoever tried to protest, could count on having serious problems.

In 1948 the communist party took power in the country. This had disastrous consequences on universities. Due to the centralization policy of the government, all departments of the Abricultural Faculty were temporarily closed. From autumn 1949 a tractor-driver training course and later a secondary modem school functioned in the ancient building of the castle. Most of the cerefully preserved collections had been plundered. The secondary modem school then took the remaining part away, when it changed residency.

VB. (1954-1962)

The serious lack of food after 1951 (at this time rationing had to be introduced) and death of Stalin convinced the usurpers of power that agriculture needed qualified engineers. Because of this the government opened the regional faculties again. Among them, the faculty in Mosonmagyaróvár opened its gates under the name of the Agricultural Academy in 1954. Higher education could have been

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