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

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

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE REFORM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN 1848-49 The student movement had a considerable influence on the Diet, especially the demands of the Pest university, presented by a delegation sent to Pozsony on March 19 were lent an attentive ear. The proposal was discussed separately from the general questions of public education and it resulted in Article XIX of 1848. The act containing only a few paragraphs could only serve as a framework for the university reform. It placed the universities under the minister of public education; introduced and confirmed the principle of "the freedom of teaching and study", the free choice of subjects and teachers, and the system of "private professorship" (corresponding to the German Privatdozent). During the debate on the Bill in the Upper House János Barkóczy, Antal Forgách and Lord Chief Justice György Majláth clashed with the ministerial candidate, Eötvös, on the question of the freedom of education. László Teleki, Kázmér Batthyány and some other liberal peers helped Eötvös to overcome the opposition of the conservative group, to have the Bill passed. Starting its activity the newly formed Ministry of Religion and Public Education adopted the structure of the respective department of the Lieutenancy (Governing Council in Buda Castle). University affairs belonged to the branch of public education, which was temporarily headed by the minister himself, later by Secretary of State Károly Szász, the famous teacher at Nagyenyed. "On questions of public education concerning the university" Counsellors Márton Csausz and János Balassa, professors in medicine, acted as advisors. It is an unchallengeable fact that both during the March events (supporting the petition) and in the later periods of "the war of independence" the most progressive faculty at the university tourned out to be the medical. The simultaneous influence of scientific thinking, human responsibility and social experience on the medical profession are to explain that. The atmosphere of transformation started a real tide in planning, in making reform schemes. Drafts were sent in the Ministry by institutions and individuals, covering all forms and stages of education from nurseries to universities. Eötvös himself requested such suggestions from the teaching staffs. He offered two starting points : they must be based on the freedom of teaching and study and must be suitable for acquiring further knowledge, which roots in the desire for self-education. The proposals of the faculty of arts were more formal than essential (the order of lectures, the regulation of examinations, etc.). The faculty of law could not avoid the officious treatment of formal questions either, but proposed some organizational and essential changes as well: new subjects, private professorship, etc. Here, too, the medical faculty lead the field. Even before the invitation of the minister they submitted him an expert and detailed plan: "Proposal on National Sanitary and Medical Affairs in our Country". Essentially the draft contains the principles of modern medical training, the seeds of the measures which were later taken only gradually. Besides the chapters on higher education