Studenți și profesori ai Universității din Iași la studii în străinătate (deceniul șapte al secolului XIX) (I)
Students and professors of the University of Iași studying abroad (seventh decade of the 19th century) (I)

Summary/Abstract: In the mid 19th century, the Western universities held the monopoly of education of the Romanian cultural and scientific elite and certain dependency of the local academics on great European universities, for teachers’ training or retraining, was maintained even after the foundation of the two modern universities in Iaşi (1860) and Bucharest (1864). During that period the Romanian education system faced several deficiencies (e.g. outdated infrastructure and curricula; absence of an audience ready to receive knowledge; poorly trained teachers etc.) so that, because of the lack of an alternative, serious instruction in European institutions was necessary and also preferred by the Romanian young people eager of education. The Romanian authorities in educational system used to select young people and send them abroad to study in educational or social domains that contributed directly to the modernization and proper functioning of the state. The policy of training abroad was at its climax during the period of the foundation of the two universities, in Iaşi and Bucharest, especially for the legitimation and increase of visibility and quality of local institutions. Since for a long period of time the faculties were not complete because of the absence of some departments (determined by shortage of budget or staff), several specializations were not available in the country and the phenomenon of scholarships for studies abroad was maintained with varying intensity throughout the modern period. In fact, the present research deals mainly with the Romanian scholars abroad as they were target for recruiting teachers for higher education. They were sent to study abroad especially for being recruited in the country for academic training, a fact which determined their high interest in obtaining a bachelor or PhD degree, which allowed them to join the well paid elite. For more than a century, the Romanian researchers became aware of the importance of the thematic universe of studying abroad; the subject has been and still remains fascinating for the history of education and the history of elite and cultural transfers. However, the investigations were not very efficient for reasons mainly related to the lack of a uniform methodology and chronological widespread of sources (and their dissipation in various European universities). The best research in this field should be accomplished in two stages. By collective effort and appeal to sociological methods, the first stage, chronological, nominalist and thus, bare, should gather prosopographic data of the universities’ registers and other edited material, and publish lists of names, age, geographical origin, religion etc. The second one, mainly retrospective, very useful in terms of cultural transfers and formative processes, should provide a theoretical dimension, which to conceptualize, raise questions, lead to a genuine debate on key issues and answer to the growing series of questions. Unfortunately, for the moment, such a totalizing approach remains utopian in the Romanian scientific space, which lacks mainly prosopographic data, not to mention the scarcity of retrospective attempts. It is easy to see that the Romanian research results are negligible compared to the actual dimension of the topic, despite the publishing of several essential papers. It is also relevant that information on the instruction of modern Romanian personalities is often either under rated or wrong. In fact, the present research deals with the difficulty of obtaining accurate data on the education of teachers in Iaşi in the mid 19th century and their entering the teaching profession. The first part of the present study deals with official regulations of the institution of scholars abroad in the 1860’s, the people involved in the process and preferred destinations for study, with the process of selecting the scholars, the amount and duration of scholarships and the students’ travel to education institutions. The chronological range in discussion (the 1860’s) is particularly significant for the Romanian modern history and the phenomenon of studying abroad. It represents a new era, an optimistic one, as also perceived by the contemporaries, when the time begins to run faster for the Romanians. It is the time of the Union, of reforms, of institutional innovation and the first decade of the University of Iaşi, thus interesting years both in terms of organizational challenges and education of students, a very mobile time, marked by unpredictability and uncertainty about the future of the institution. The seventh decade also records, in an unprecedented fluency, the greatest numbers of students abroad, among which the future academics of the universities of Iaşi and Bucharest were also included. Moreover, it is the time when the policy of stipends, following closely the direction of the foreign policy, is primarily oriented to centers in neo Latin countries, such as France, which has a special relationship with the United Principalities, then Italy and even Spain. In 1850, only 9 Moldavian scholars were studying abroad, while in 1862 there were 31, in 1865 the number of scholars in both principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) increased to 70, and then decreased until the end of the decade. Most of the scholars benefiting of stipends were trained for a career in public education system. Among them there were future academics of the University of Iaşi, namely N. Culianu (in 1855), Petru Poni, Grigore Cobălcescu (in 1859) who were studying natural sciences in Paris; Iacob Negruzzi (Berlin, 1859-1863), George Alexandrescu (Torino, since 1860) and Al. Şendrea (Berlin, since 1861) studied law; Ioan Ciurea (future professor of forensic medicine at the Faculty of Law since 1865) studied medicine in Paris and George Roşiu (future professor of Sciences) studied architecture in Torino. Sorting the universities and studied disciplines is also possible, but the conclusions are less relevant for short periods, as it is our case. As expected, Paris was preferred for studying most of the domains, and was even the only one chosen for sciences and technical studies. Italy was preferred for studying law, medicine and arts, while Germany for juridical and philosophical studies. By 1848, a relatively small number of students in the Romanian Principalities, benefiting or not of stipends, were studying in universities of Austria, Germany and France. At that time also, Paris was considered The City of Light, the intellectual and fashionable centre of the civilized world, although ideological considerations and antirevolutionary preventive measures tempered the attraction of Romanian youth to it. Things changed due to the liberal policy of the Moldavian ruler Grigore Al. Ghica and the new priorities in the foreign policy of the United Principalities later imposed by Alexandru Ioan Cuza; thus, during the 6th and 7th decades, most of the Romanian scholars studied in France, while universities and special education institutions in Germany, Belgium and Italy were less preferred. The French capital was the ideal place for the Romanian young to discover modern public life under all its aspects, specific sociability, the spectacle of streets and salons, events and media, and, above all, the freedom as only the City of Light could have offered. It is also true that Paris housed the largest Romanian colony in Europe (pupils, students, aristocrats etc.), which determined partial sociability in the country and, despite of the city size, made alienation easier to bear. However, in 1862, Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza intended to found in Paris a particular establishment (“national institute”) for the Romanian youth, which would have allowed a more stringent control on their morality and frequency of studies, following the model of other similar institutions abroad. As for the German universities, they provided important advantages, related to the geographical proximity of the Romanian Principalities, reduced bureaucracy, lower costs and a easier way of obtaining final diplomas. The authorities’ interest should have, therefore, dictated to sending the young mainly in this area. This was not the case and not only because of foreign policy considerations which were undoubtedly, very important. But it is known that in terms of mathematics, physics, natural sciences etc. German universities, small and with limited resources, were not able to compete the Paris University or the special schools. The universities in Italy and Spain were less attractive, despite the support offered by the influential director in the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction, V. A. Urechia, as his initiative in 1860 of sending scholars priority to schools in Latin countries was not a successful one and was thus abandoned towards the end of the decade. Once appointed scholars of the state (usually in a competition), the young filled a statement of taking note of the destination and specialization to study; they were also committed to return in the country after completing their studies and to accept a job assigned by the state for a certain period. They sometimes received money in advance for travel expenses, while some other times the sums arrived late, along with the grant for the first trimester, directly at the new address abroad. Taken into considerations the conditions of the mid-century, the journey to German, Italian and particularly to Parisian schools was a daring act, a difficult test for the young who were, often, traveling for the first time abroad. If we consider that the social structure of the young scholars had changed, just by assigning a large number of scholarships especially to those with low income, the impact of the journey, of the first contact with other (civic and technological) advanced civilizations, with foreign languages and rules had a particular significance.

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