Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 51-53. (Budapest, 1969)
TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A modern felsőoktatási rendszer kialakulása Magyarországon (1848—1890) (angol nyelven)
three year preparatory course for the university following six years of secondary education (4 lower and two upper grandes of grammer school)—a program not to be discarded after a century of opposite experience. In place of the system of Thun, which —correctly —separated the philosophical grade of the grammar school (years VII—VIII) from the faculty of arts he wanted to introduce not simply eight years of grammar school, but legal, medical-scientific, and theological-linguistical schools ("trifurcatio") after the six years of the grammar school. They would have served as a transition between the secondary school and the university. For those localities where the eight yeas grammar school had struck roots and was adhered to he recommended an one year preparatory course to bridge the gap between the two educational formations. In the field of higher education Eötvös first wanted to get acquainted with the wishes. He called on the University Board to summarize the wishes of the faculties, their more important reflections and urgent needs. University self-government could begin to have its effects only now, that the minister acted in the spirit of the fundamental law of the universities. Already in the summer of 1867 he—with the cooperation of the directors—drew up a new curriculum for the academies of law, and regulated the appointment and salary of teachers. He also made important decisions in connection with the university in Pest, even before the legislation dealt with it. He set up a teachers' training college within the faculty of arts and planned the establishment of a demonstration school. He tried to remedy the difficult circumstances of medical and scientific education, and raise their standard by providing them with the necessary equipment. The establishment of an independent chemical school, the ordering of the compulsory teaching of practical obstetrics for all medical students, in line with the wishes of the Faculty, and the introduction of public examinations is also linked with his name. In accordance with his principles rooted in the ideology of liberalism he considered it important that civilians and soldiers should be educated in the same institutions, which is the best means to avoid the emergence of a military caste. With this end in view he ordered the establishment of four chairs in the military sciences on the faculty of arts. It is interesting to mention—and was more than accidental —that Kossuth expressed similar views in his letter to Gyula Schvarcz, written from the emigration. In addition Eötvös implemented many other smaller measures. He introduced the teaching of stenography at the university, had the degrees of Pest university accepted as of equal value to that of Vienna, which had earlier been a permanent complaint. He gave scholarships for the specialists and the talented students to study abroad. (The sum spent on such scholarships amounted to 30,000 forints during his second tenure of office). His fame as a great intellectual originator, a statesman of well-worked out conceptions would be unjustified if his comprehensive reform-programs were not mentioned. It was no fault of him but was due to his sudden death in 1871 and to the internal difficulties, the conservative —denominational opposition that these programs did not come true. He introduced his program for university reform in the Parliament in 1870, simultaneously with the bill on the secondary
