Technikatörténeti szemle 27. (2005-06)

Tanulmányok - Fekete Zsolt: Szlovák nyelvű mérnökképzés – magyar nemzetiségű mérnökhallgatók

ZSOLT FEKETE: EDUCATION OF ENGINEERS IN SLOVAK LANGUAGE - STUDENTS OF ENGINEERING OF HUNGARIAN NATIONALITY The fate of minorities was sealed, after World War II by the BeneD decrees. The collective guiltiness of ethnic groups of mother tongues other than Slavic, i.e. Germans and Hungarians, was enacted by law. The decree automatically deprived them of their nationalities. The use of the Hungarian language was prohibited in public life, Hungarian students were excluded from universities, Hungarian cultural societies were dissolver etc. The take-over of power by the communists in 1948 under Klement Gottwald's leadership broke the impetus of the series of measures inflicted on the minorities, though, which, however did not mean the beginning of a better epoch - on the contrary. But can the low number of engineering students of Hungarian nationality be explained by the noxious measures of the fascist and communist powers? The answer is neither a direct yes, nor a direct no. It is true that the two contradictory epochs influenced, to a considerable extent, the composition of nationalities in Czechoslovakia, on the other hand it has to be made understood that the roots of the problem are to be looked for elsewhere. On the basis of the study it can be stated that the low number of university and college students of the 1920s might be attributed to the closing of schools. As a result, the number of Hungarian students of engineering at Czechoslovak technical colleges considerably decreased by the 1930s. From the 1950s on to the "velvet revolution" the percentage of Hungarian engineering students varied between 4 and 5%. And what is characteristic of our days? According to the mentality of the European Union, today's Budapest Corvinus University established education in East-Slovakia's Královsky Chlmec and in Komárno near to Hungarian Komárom. At the latter place also Budapest Technical University started education of technical computer experts. Moreover, in January 2004 Selye János University was established. However, this might be the theme of another study.