School PRONews Magazine

The University of Cluj is certainly older than the current Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. May 12, 1581 is the birth date of the Academia Claudiopolitana, the first institution with university status on the current territory of Romania: “ … According to the custom of the other academies in the Christian world, we decide and decree by the power of this letter, on the basis of our special royal generosity, that the one who has been worthily trained in the humanistic letters, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and then will have wanted to reach, by the judgment of the college, the summit of one of the two faculties, either theology or philosophy, if he will have proven his book knowledge, may be promoted to the degrees of baccalaureate, master and doctor. And this promotion shall have the same right, dignity, excellence and brilliance that such promotions are accustomed to and can have by right and by custom in the academies of Italy, France, Spain and Germany. We insist with the Apostolic See that this be consecrated by the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff and that the college obtain in full the privileges of a legitimate university …”.

From there it evolved into the Universitas Claudiopolitana, the oldest institution with university status and name in Romania, which in the 18th century had four faculties: Philosophy, Law, Medicine, Theology.

The Universitas Claudiopolitana was followed by the Hungarian University of 1872, transformed in 1919 into the first Romanian University. The Babeș-Bolyai University was formally established in 1959, through the union of the Romanian University, the successor of the 1919 one (Victor Babeș) with the Hungarian university (Bolyai).

In an academic sense, a University with a high degree of trust, the Babeș-Bolyai University presents itself today under the motto Tradition and Excellence through Culture – Science – Innovation since 1581.

All details are available on the Babeș-Bolyai University website, at https://www.ubbcluj.ro.