Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania

Introduction

The Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania is an institution of Hungarian higher education in the historic region of Transylvania, Romania.

Its establishment was motivated by needs outgrowing the present choice of Hungarian university education in Romania, especially that the percentage of Hungarian students in Romanian university life does not represent the percentage of Hungarian population in Romania, and university education in Hungarian does not cover the range of necessary specializations. From among the 25,000 Hungarian students in Romania only one in third may study in their mother tongue.

To fill the gap and fulfill the needs described above, the Board of Trustees of the Sapientia Foundation founded by the eight leaders of the Hungarian Historic Churches in Transylvania on the April 14, 2000, decided to establish the Hungarian University of Transylvania. It is open to qualified students of any nationality who meet admissions requirements.

The university was established and is funded by the Sapientia Foundation. The latter, in turn, was founded by the four Hungarian historical churches of Transylvania: the Roman Catholic, the Calvinist Reformed, the Unitarian and the Lutheran Churches.

The educational results were demonstrated for the first time during the summer of 2005. At that time, our students specializing in Informatics and Social Pedagogy successfully passed graduation exams organized by accredited universities. In subsequent academic years, including the year 2008, students from specializations in Mechatronics, Computer Science, Automatics, Communications, and Public Relations also passed graduation exams, obtaining excellent results. Based on the results of the graduation exams, we have concluded that the students of our University are among the best in Romania.

Education and research

The University is a modern institution of higher education and research.

With its committed teaching staff, brand new infrastructure and widespread professional and academic networks, the university will help ensure Transylvania's contributive participation in the international academic, scientific and business communities.

The educational program also includes training for research, evidenced by findings presented at scientific conferences. Some of our students have achieved remarkable accomplishments at international conferences, and also as participants in international competitions.

The professional evolution of our teaching staff is also a positive result in the academic life of our Faculty. Between 2003-2008, 9 junior faculty members earned and were awarded their Ph.D. degree, and 12 Lecturers were promoted to Associate Professor.

The main research areas at our University are: health and drug abuse, gradient nano-crystal TiAIN multilayers, iterative methods for solving non-linear operator equations, designing optimal structure adapting - parallel mechanic systems, and universal bevel-wheel profile measuring instruments.

Aims for the future

When we reflect on the achievements which have resulted from the educational and research activity of our University, we can conclude that these achievements have far exceeded the main objective of Transylvanian Hungarian ethnics, which is to maintain their language and cultural values. Therefore, in view of our infrastructure and as well as of our educational and scientific life, our aim is to fortify the present-day working environment of our faculty and students.

Regarding the completion of the infrastructure, we must begin by constructing a student residence that will house 240 students. After that, we would like to construct the 2nd of the 3 buildings envisioned in the initial project of the campus.

The first steps regarding the student residence have already been completed - the plans and building permit have been obtained. We should mention that the existence of a student residence is a requirement in order to obtain the accreditation of the Faculty.

Another very important task is to acquire a low-noise transformer which will provide clean power. This is necessary in order to keep the laboratory equipment in good and safe operating condition. [Please refer to the section below, on funding requests, for more information about the transformer.]

After completion of the accreditation process for the Faculty, another very important task will be to create the premises for higher level research work.