1895 and 1910 By Type and Field of Science
The last decades of the era of dualism are characterised by the gradual expansion of the state school network. In parallel, between 1890 and 1910, the number of students in gram-mar schools and secondary schools of sciences rose from 43,000 to 71,000 (Kövér 2006:
179). Thus, the expansion of secondary schooling was mostly exploited by the expanding state school system, which led to a decrease in the proportion of those studying in Roman Catholic grammar schools, while the Lutheran and Reformed institutions continued to play an important role in training the elite, although the former was steadily decreasing and the latter steadily increasing (Kende–Kovács 2011a: 91–92).
In the case of those admitted in the Eötvös Collegium, there were processes in the examined period that were contrary to the national trends regarding the type of secondary schools. 22% (31.91%) of admitted applicants graduated from a Roman Catholic secondary school.78 This is presumably due to the fact that this denomination maintained the highest number of secondary schools. Nevertheless, in the absolute rank of secondary schools, the Royal Catholic Secondary School in Lőcse with five persons could only achieve a shared second place. 18% (12.76%) of admitted students had continued their studies in Evangeli-cal-Lutheran lyceums. The absolute ranking is led by the EvangeliEvangeli-cal-Lutheran lyceums of Bratislava and Iglov with 10 persons each in the sub-period. The third place in the ranking of maintainers were taken by state grammar schools: 16% (32.62%) of those admitted had received secondary education in this school network. In spite of this, two such institutes are listed in the top ten ranking of secondary schools – the Hungarian Royal State Grammar School of Rijeka with five persons and the State Grammar School of Szekszárd with three persons. The Reformed secondary schools closely follow state institutions with their 15%
(17.73%) result. Only the Debrecen Reformed Grammar School and Collegium with its four students could get into the top ten in the absolute ranking, but in the first twenty such well-known institutes as Pápa and Sárospatak Reformed Grammar School and Collegium appear with three students each. Among admitted applicants, state secondary schools of sciences achieved an 8% result, however, none of them were in the top 20 in the absolute ranking. The most prominent place was that held by the Debrecen State Upper Secondary School of Sciences with two students. This can be explained by the low number of students who specialised in natural sciences. 3% of admitted applicants (1.41%) came from Greek
78 In parentheses, for the purposes of comparison, are presented the data of the statistical report on the main-tainers of full secondary schools (“Statisztika” 1911: 359–360). However, statistics do not distinguish between grammar schools and secondary schools of sciences.
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5. The History of the Eötvös Collegium in the Early Period of the Institute Between 1895 and 1910 5. The History of the Eötvös Collegium in the Early Period of the Institute Between 1895 and 1910
Orthodox and 1% (2.12%) from Greek Catholic grammar schools.79 The former were all admitted in the Institute from the Grammar School of the Naszód (Năsăud) Region Schol-arship Fund, or from the Brasov Greek Orthodox Grammar School. The latter graduated at the Greek Catholic grammar schools in Blaj, Beius and Uzhorod.
In the absolute ranking of secondary schools, the most prominent phenomenon is that grammar schools and secondary schools of sciences in Budapest are in the lower half of the ranking. No Budapest-based secondary school was able to achieve any of the first twenty-five places. This can be explained by the fact that in that period only 15 people were admitted from those who had their secondary school graduation in Budapest. The administrative classification of the seats of secondary schools also confirmed this tendency: most secondary schools were based in municipality towns and towns with their own councils (38-38%).
The capital’s share among municipality towns was only 14%. Thus, the Collegium gathered its members primarily from the nationally famous secondary schools of Upper Hungary, Transylvania and Transdanubia. A significant part of these secondary schools, 48%, were located beyond the borders of 1920.80
Similar tendencies can be observed for rejected applicants in the examined period. In the breakdown by type of secondary school, state (16%)81 and Roman Catholic secondary schools (22%) were ranked first at a shared 21%. In the top of the absolute ranking there were several of both: the Royal Catholic Grammar School of Prešov, the Royal State Grammar School of Lučenec, the Royal Catholic Grammar School of Levoča (six persons each), the Hungarian Royal State Grammar school of Jászberény (five persons). In the second and third places of the ranking were the Reformed and Evangelical-Lutheran grammar schools with 14% (15%) and 13% (18%). The absolute ranking of secondary schools was also led by a Reformed Institute, the Reformed Grammar School and Collegium of Debrecen, with nine rejected candidates, while the second and third places were occupied by the Lutheran lyceums of Kežmarok and Rožňava with eight and seven rejected applicants. But in the top ten, the Evangelical-Lutheran lyceums in Iglov and Bratislava are among the most prominent ones also with respect to the admitted applicants, while among the Reformed institutions it is the Kecskemét and the Kiskunhalas Reformed grammar schools. The state secondary school of sciences, just as among those admitted, achieved an 8% result. In the absolute ranking, in one of the first fifteen places was the Hungarian Royal State Upper Secondary School of Sciences in Levoča with five rejected candidates.82
In terms of settlement type, these secondary schools were largely concentrated in munic-ipality towns at 32%. In this category, the share of the capital city, as in the case of admitted applicants, was very low – only 14%. With 27%, they were followed by towns with their own councils and with 15% by county seats. Only 5% of them were limited to district seats.83 A significant part of these secondary schools, just as in the case of admissions, were located
79 For 15% of those admitted there is no information on the type of secondary school they graduated from.
80 37% of them were located within the post-Trianon borders and for 15% of them there is no such information.
81 In parentheses, for easier comparison, are the data of the admitted applicants.
82 For 20% of the rejected applicants there is no data on the type of secondary school.
83 For 20% of them there is no data on the legal status of the seat of the secondary school.
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5.2. The Breakdown of the Secondary Schools of Applicants Admitted and 5.2. The Breakdown of the Secondary Schools of Applicants Admitted and Rejected Rejected
beyond the borders of the 1920s (47%).84 Thus, it can be concluded that the applicants were mainly from Upper Hungary and Transylvanian secondary schools and to a lesser extent from secondary schools of Transdanubia and the Transtisza Region. There were many applicants from Rijeka and Timişoara, as well as from Pančevo, but their applications were rarely successful. The high number of applicants from the Reformed grammar schools of the Great Plain Region is also striking, as well as the low degree of their admission to the institute. Regarding the type of settlement, applications were submitted mainly by students who graduated in municipality towns, county seats or in towns with their own councils; the role of smaller settlements, large villages and small villages was quite small.
68% of those admitted were students who specialised in humanities and 23% in natural sciences.85 Among philologists, the most popular combination of specialisations was classi-cal philology; 63 of those admitted pursued this field. This was followed by 50 people who specialised in Hungarian-German and 21 in Latin-history. The latter internally were called
“mule classics” in the Collegium. The top five of the ranking included the combined special-isations of Latin-Hungarian with 15 students and history-geography with 10 students.
From this data it is clear that the institute tried to make up for the shortage of teachers in classical philology, thus, its training profile shifted strongly towards the classical disciplines.
In the case of “dögész” (natural sciences) students, the most popular combination of special-isations was mathematics-physics involving 37 persons and taking second place – with a great lag behind – geography-natural history involving 12 persons, followed by natural history-chemistry involving three persons.
For those who were rejected, it is very difficult to make a final conclusion, as for 37% of them there is no data as to the field of science they had applied for. Only for 36% of them is it known with certainty that they had applied for specialisations in the field of humanities and 27% of them wished to study natural sciences. However, it can be concluded that in the admission process the management of the institute deliberately aimed at shaping the institution’s training profile, as 84 applicants who had applied for the combined speciali-sation of mathematics-physics were rejected. This is reinforced by the fact that admitted students were often forced to change their specialisation. This is well exemplified by the case of Zoltán Bassola who applied to the institute for a combined specialisation of math-ematics-physics, but, as a result of pressure from Géza Bartoniek and others, he changed his specialisation to Latin-Greek (Bassola 1998: 53).86 The pre-selection was very strong in the fields of Latin-Hungarian and Hungarian-German as well where there were 34 and 25 rejected students, respectively. In the case of the latter, there were certainly professional reasons for rejection.
84 33% of them were within the later boundaries of the country.
85 For 9% of them there is no data on the chosen field of science.
86 MDKL box 1, file 2, lot 3. He was a member of the Institute between 1922 and 1930.
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5. The History of the Eötvös Collegium in the Early Period of the Institute Between 1895 and 1910 5. The History of the Eötvös Collegium in the Early Period of the Institute Between 1895 and 1910