Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 51-53. (Budapest, 1969)

TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A modern felsőoktatási rendszer kialakulása Magyarországon (1848—1890) (angol nyelven)

responsible government. It took nobody as a surprise when the portfolio of Minister of Religion and Public Education was given to József Eötvös, the noted writer and politician, leader of the "centralist group" of the Opposition Party. The roots of Eötvös's higher educational policy were to be found in his entire cultural policy and even in his political philosophy. Though he made no secret that he regarded elementary education, the foundation of the pyramid of public education, as the alphabet of his educational policy, he did not neglect the case of higher education either. He was aware of the inseparability of the two, the indivisibility of education: the interdependence of basic training and higher education, the precondition of scientific progress. All the leading personalities of the Age of Reforms knew the disadvantages of the peoples backwardness and the shortcomings of Hungarian higher education which they once experienced and still remembered. So it is small wonder that one of the first reform bills passed was concerning higher education. The Act was brought about partly by the necessity of change, and partly by the direct role of the youth, especially of the students in the events of "the spring of the nations". It was the support and the participation of the university youth which helped the poet Sándor Petőfi and his circle to accomplish the March revolution. Its outcome, the new government, wanted to calm the revolting youth by meeting their demands, which were not very far from the ideas of the lawmakers themselves, who were only more moderate. The wishes of the university students even coincided with the ideas of the progressive members of the teaching staff, who desired the modernization and liberation of higher education. The harmony of the students, most teachers and the competent government authorities in the days of revival, in 1848, is rare in history. The initiative was taken by the students of Pest when on March 17 they presented their petition for the reform of the university "from the assembly of all the students of the university, on the third day of the free press". They demanded the liberation of the Hungarian university from the patronage of the Vienna university, the liberal government of the university and the latter's representation in Parliament, complete freedom in teaching and study, free choice between teachers, arrangements for making it possible for persons who distinguished themselves in the sciences to teach at the university side by side with the regular staff, the filling up of chairs through open, public competition (without regard to religion), "setting up of institutes and associations for physical exercise", the introduction of public and strict final examinations in place of yearly test, "the setting up of larger lecturing rooms and other institutes corresponding to the present needs of science and becoming the Hungarian nation". The. petition was approved and signed by the Rector, János Szabó "concurring in this solemn cause" and by the delegated members of the staff, three professors of medicine: János Balassa, János Rupp, and Lajos Arányi. The example of the Pest students was followed by the countryside. The students of the ancient school-towns, academies, and collages spoke out, one after the other. The students of the academy of Győr summarized their demands for the reform of the whole educational system in a memorandum. The youth