Herramientas de Análisis Forense

The specific requirements of higher education for minorities tend to be regard- ed as marginal and often neglected by national governments and policy mak- ing agencies conducting the implementation of current educational reform. Rather surprisingly, taking into account the rich multicultural and pluralistic tradition of European education, the reference to the minority cultural and educational needs is almost completely absent from the dominant “Bologna” discourse at the European level, and the implicit globalizing and homogenizing message transmitted in this way has its corresponding effects at national level as well (Flora 2009). In such circumstances, the autonomous existence and legitimacy of small-size institutions with specifically defined ethno-cul- tural and ethno-linguistic profiles might be questioned not only by changes in the internal political context, but also by a series of pressures originating from the expectations of the ongoing reform of higher education and the conse- quences of its expansion and internationalization (Belényi et al 2012, p.130).

As pointed out by several authors, the process of transformation which is currently under way inclines to favor the establishment of large institutions, having an important research component, with standard procedures and evaluation criteria (Flora 2009). Although the four main purposes of education – „preparation for the labor market, preparation for life as active citizens in democratic societies, personal development and the development and main- tenance of a broad, advanced knowledge base” - should be seen “as part of a whole, and they reinforce and complement each other”, personal develop- ment, which is intimately linked to problems pertaining to identity develop- ment, has been largely ignored in the Bologna discussions (Bergan 2006). It is worth to mention in this respect that, according to information provided by European University Association, less than 25% of European higher education institutions have introduced specific policies concerning minority ethnic groups or immigrants (Sursock -Smidt 2010, p. 70).

In such circumstances, the institutional policies of the universities designed to respond to minority needs, play a crucial role. Drawing on the results of the first Romanian nationwide survey conducted in 2010-2011 that tracks the relationship between university studies and the careers of young people, this paper focuses on the case of Partium Christian University (PCU), one of the two recently accredited Hungarian language private higher educa- tional institutions in Romania. Our basic aim is to discuss the ways in which the institution fulfills the objectives enshrined in its institutional mission and

responds to the expectations of the employers and of the larger social environ- ment within the region. In order to achieve this, the main survey outcomes concerning PCU are analyzed both in intra-institutional and national compara- tive perspectives, in view of the regional employment offer available to Hungarian minority members.

Research methodology

University Graduates and the Labor Market is a national research conducted by the Romanian National Authority of Public University Financing in partner- ship with the International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER) Kassel and with public and private higher education institutions in Romania. The research tracked the relationship between university studies and the careers of young people, its main role being that of increasing the institu- tional capacity of the universities for developing monitoring studies constantly. The project aims to provide higher education institutions with monitoring instruments that allow the correlation of the study offers and the employers’ requirements. It is hoped that the instruments developed and the experience gained this way will create the premises for a long term approach, in which this type of research will be repeated at national level annually (UGLM 2011).

A first survey was conducted in 2011, on 2005 and 2009 graduates, and another survey followed next year, on the 2006 and 2010 graduates. The Partium Christian University was one of the 55 public and private universi- ties tracking their own graduates in this phase. As the results from the second phase are not yet available, this paper draws exclusively on the data collected during the first phase. The research consisted in the application of a question- naire that surveyed the graduate’s background starting with his/her university studies, continuing with getting his/her first job and then with other issues that were important for his/her professional evolution. The questionnaire was accessed on-line. A paper questionnaire was also available and sent, at request, to those who did not have access to the Internet (UGLM 2011).

During four contact stages, each university sent invitations to ask its graduates to participate in the study. Using regular mail and e-mail as back- up, the universities sent a first letter of invitation and three reminders. The filling in of the questionnaire ended on 31st March 2011, resulting in 39293 graduates who accessed it (UGLM 2011). The Partium Christian University sub-sample consisted of 148 of its graduates who accessed the questionnaire (of which 72 graduated in 2005 and 76 graduated in 2009). The overall response rate of PCU graduates was 40% (51, 06% in the case of the 2005 graduates and 33, 18% in the case of the 2009 graduates).

Landmarks of institutional history

„After the revolutionary changes of 1989, the chronologically first initiative to establish an autonomous private Hungarian higher education institution in Romania dates back to 1990, when the Reformed Church District of Királyhágómellék decided to set up the Sulyok István Reformed College in Oradea, with the official task of training lay collaborators for the church.

Beyond its officially assumed mission, however, the aim of the founders was to go beyond the Reformed denomination’s own educational needs in order to establish a fully-fledged university under Christian ecumenical lead- ership, in the service of the entire Hungarian community. This intention was transformed into reality in the period 2000–2008, when Partium Christian University was first founded as a private educational institution, then recog- nized by the government to function provisionally, and finally – after a four year waiting period in the parliamentary commissions - established by law as a private university of public interest, part of the higher education system of Romania.” (Belényi et al 2012, 121).

As a Hungarian language higher education institution of Romania, Partium Christian University has assumed to offer professional training in order to respond to the needs of Hungarian minority to have specialists with a good mastering of both Hungarian and Romanian language, and it is the only institu- tion of higher education within the region with this kind of academic offer. The overwhelming majority of its students (99%) are Hungarian ethnics, a fact which underlines the strong ethno-regional character and profile of this institu- tion (PCU 2011). According to its mission statement, „besides the educational and scientific challenges, the University has a strategic role in terms of nation- al politics as well. Its purpose is to assure the equal educational opportunities for the Hungarian community in Partium and in Transylvania, and to educate well-trained and internationally competitive experts, according to the most excellent educational and research requirements. By forming intellectuals, the University also fulfills a cultural mission: it educates new professionals who will transmit and further develop the Hungarian culture” (PCU 2010).

Socio-educational and regional background of the student population In the scholarly literature, „intergenerational transmission of educational achievement is described in well-known models of social reproduction. Blau and Duncan (1967) have shown that a great part of intergenerational transmis- sion of social statuses occur through mechanisms of educational reproduc- tion”(Hatos-Bernáth 2006, 42). In Romania, recent research pointed out that „every generation that was born after 1974 had more educated parents than those from the previous cohorts. Thus, at the level of instruction of the young- est respondents’ parents we find the highest rate of parents with high school and third level education” (Hatos-Bernáth 2006, 48). In analyzing our data, we have been interested therefore to have a clearer and more nuanced picture of

the extent to which student recruitment to various fields of study at Partium Christian University contributes to the intergenerational reproduction of cul- tural capital within the Hungarian community living in the region.

In this regard, our data shows significant differences between different fields of study. The proportion of graduates coming from families where at least one parent has university degree is the highest in case of Humanities, where 38% of the graduates’ mothers and 28% of their fathers graduated from higher education. (The corresponding values in the national sample stand at 18% and 21%, respectively). On the basis of the information available to us concerning the types of intellectual occupations practiced by PCU graduates in Humanities and by their parents, a possible explanatory factor of such high rates of cultural reproduction might be connected to the influence of the inter- generational transmission of pedagogical vocation within families.

Table 1: The highest education level attained by graduates’ parents (mother) (%)

U T SP Ec A #Total

Mother’s education level

Primary school (1-8 forms) 7 100 47 13 14 19

Vocational school 21 0 24 29 14 24 Secondary school 25 0 18 39 29 29 Higher education 39 0 12 13 29 23 Post-graduate education 7 0 0 0 0 2 Other 0 0 0 6 14 4 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of respondents 28 1 17 31 7 84

Table 2: The highest education level attained by graduates’ parents (father) (%)

U T SP Ec A #Total

Father’s education level

Primary school (1-8 forms) 7 0 11 3 22 8

Vocational school 45 0 63 46 33 47 Secondary school 17 100 5 26 22 19 Higher education 28 0 21 17 22 22 Post-graduate education 3 0 0 3 0 2 Other 0 0 0 6 0 2 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of respondents 29 1 19 35 9 93

Abbreviations of fields of study: U - Humanities, T- Theology, SP – Social and Political Sciences, Ec – Economics, A - Arts

As it can be seen, the socio-educational background of Economics gradu- ates presents us a rather different picture, having an important segment of student population coming from families where the highest educational level attained by parents is vocational school. This means that for many families, supporting a family member in becoming an Economics graduate appears as a potential intergenerational channel of ascendant socio-occupational mobil- ity. This perception is likely to be present even more strikingly in families of Social Work students, where 47% of the mothers of our subjects finalized only primary education. In these cases it is even possible to speak about an implic- it university’s assumption of a role in overcoming disadvantaged social situa- tions through intergenerational educational mobility.

It is worth to mention in this respect that the institutionoffers a series of finan- cial resources to its students (scholarships based on learning performance and/or on demonstrated social needs, tuition fee waivers and special prices etc.), which make it particularly attractive to potential students coming from disadvantaged social groups, who otherwise could not afford the cost of university studies.

Table 3: Student access to scholarships (%; multiple responses)

U T SP Ec A #Total

Type of scholarship

Social scholarship 13 67 20 7 11 13

Learning scholarship 69 67 50 49 22 53

Merit based scholarship 9 0 15 9 22 11

Rural scholarship 0 0 0 0 0 0

Performance based schol-

arship 0 0 0 11 1

Other scholarship 0 0 0 2 0 1

Never accessed a scholar-

ship 25 0 30 42 44 34

Total 116 113 115 109 111 113

Number of respondents 32 3 20 43 9 107

Although PCU is a private university as far as its legal status is concerned, in practice it assumes the community task to support the access to higher education of Hungarian minority members and also of all those who wish to study in Hungarian. For this purpose, the University is financing a numerically important segment of its student population from its own funds, offering tui- tion-free places as well as scholarships based on merit or on disadvantaged social situation. As the result of these efforts, as it results from the national survey, only 34% of PCU graduates did not access any scholarship during uni- versity years, compared to 62% in the national sample.

In addition, an important feature of university life is the numerically important presence in its student body of the mature students, who are already engaged in work at the moment of their admission. The mentioned category of students is particularly well represented in Humanities, Theology and Social Work. In order to attract an even higher number of such students, the university will need, however, to adopt more flexible academic programs to assist students in combining efficiently study with employment. The opportu- nities to adopt specific institutional policies in this field belong to the univer- sity’s autonomous sphere of decision-making, being at the same time closely related to both the overall national social and economic situation and the existence of national policies or strategies on widening participation and life- long learning. (Sursock and Smidt 2010, p. 70)

Concerning the territorial distribution of students according to their place of origin, the results of the survey confirm that Partium Christian University acts as a primary pole of attraction to high school graduates from Bihor, and also as a secondary pole of attraction to potential candidates coming from the neighboring counties Satu-Mare and Sălaj, both inhabited by a large propor- tion of Hungarian ethnics.

Table 4: Distribution of graduates by residence during primary school and secondary school (%)

U T SP Ec A Total Country of residency Arad 0 0 0 6 0 2 Bihor 55 100 47 66 60 58 Bistrita 0 0 5 0 0 1 Covasna 0 0 5 0 0 1 Harghita 10 0 16 13 30 14 Hunedoara 3 0 0 0 0 1 Maramures 3 0 0 0 0 1 Mures 6 0 5 0 0 3 Salaj 10 0 5 6 0 6 Satu Mare 13 0 16 9 0 12 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of respondents 31 1 19 32 10 93

According to the survey data, almost two thirds of PCU graduates are from Bihor, a result which denotes that the institution appears as an attractive choice primarily to the secondary school graduates of its immediate surrounding area. The neighbor counties Sălaj and Satu-Mare are also numerically well represent- ed within the student population, making up together 21% of the total number of respondents. A smaller proportion of graduates (around 10%) are coming from Harghita and Covasna counties,located in South-East Transylvania, pre-

dominantly inhabited by Hungarian population. In contrast, the central part of Transylvania and particularly Cluj County are almost completely absent from the attraction zone of PCU, being covered mainly by Babeş-Bolyai University, Sapi- entia University and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş.

The distribution of graduates according to the regional location of their first workplace after graduation denotes a strong tendency of returning to the students’ original home region, which can be regarded as another confirma- tion of the university’s regional role. Most graduates found their first job in Bihor County (72% compared to 58% who originate from this county). Only 10% of graduates have chosen employment opportunities outside the North- West Development region, mostly residents of Harghita and Covasna, who returned home after finishing their university studies. Migration of graduates to other geographic regions of the country is numerically insignificant.

Table 5: Distribution of graduates by the county of their first employment after graduation (%; only graduates who obtained employment after graduation)

U T SP Ec A Total Country of residency Arad 0 0 0 3 0 1 Bihor 70 50 71 81 40 72 Cluj 7 0 0 0 0 3 Covasna 0 0 7 0 0 1 Harghita 4 0 14 0 20 5 Mures 4 0 0 3 20 4 Salaj 0 0 0 6 0 3 Satu Mare 15 50 7 6 20 11 Salaj 10 0 5 6 0 6 Satu Mare 13 0 16 9 0 12 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of resondents 27 2 14 31 5 79

Most graduates find employment in Romania, a fact which is important from the perspective of fulfilling the institution’s ethno-regional mission that is to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country and simul- taneously to the perpetuation of Hungarian minority community’s national identity. At the same time, beyond obtaining a bilingual learning experience together with the chance to achieve a good knowledge of an international lan- guage (preferably English), the opportunities of studying abroad part-time within the framework of foreign exchange programs are also highly valued by Hungarian students and encouraged by their university. According to the results of the national survey data Partium Christian University students are in a larger proportion involved in international student mobility (22%) com- pared to the Romanian average level (11%).

Table 6: Participation rate in international student mobilities (%)

U T SP Ec A Total

Did you participate?

Yes 21 33 40 14 22 22

No 79 67 60 86 78 78

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100

Number of respondents 34 3 20 44 9 110

The possible explanatory factors of this difference might be connected with the geographical location of the institution within the Hungarian- Romanian border area, the cultural-linguistic affinities and the numerous university partnerships established across the border. In the first years of its institutional existence most of the international partnership agreements of PCU have been concluded with universities of Hungary, also as a consequence of the fact that the institution had no rights to participate in European Union mobility programs (ERASMUS, TEMPUS etc.) before achieving final accredita- tion in 2008. Both the number of non-Hungarian European partnerships of PCU and the number of students and teaching staff involved in international mobility programs have increased significantly after that year.

Labor market orientation of PCU graduates

The results of the survey point to the fact that the linguistic competency of PCU graduates (their Hungarian-Romanian bilingualism together with the knowledge of a foreign language of large circulation) tend to be positively val- ued by potential employers. As shown by the relevant research indicators, the percentage of PCU graduates who successfully found a job within professional fields linked with their studies was 41%, compared to only 27% measured in the national sample. According to survey results, the institution also has a higher proportion of graduates who obtained employment in professional fields out- side their field of university studies (26% compared to 17% at national level).

Table 7: Situation after graduation (%; multiple responses)

U T SP Ec A Total

Situation after graduation

Employed in his/her field 44 50 35 35 50 39

Employed in another field 44 0 10 25 10 26

Continued in the same

workplace 18 6 0 35 25 0

Started a personal busi-

ness 13 0 5 5 10 8

Engaged in practical train-

ing 0 0 0 0 20 2

Engaged in voluntary work 3 0 10 8 0 6

Continued with MA studies 19 0 25 20 10 19

Maternity leave 3 0 10 0 0 3

Engaged in housework 0 0 5 3 0 2

Did not find a job 3 0 15 10 30 11

Extended vacation (journey) 4 9 0 0 3 0

Other situation 0 50 5 15 10 9

Total 144 100 155 148 140 146

Number of respondents 34 3 20 44 9 110

The proportion of graduates who found a job outside their own fields of study is comparatively high in the case of Humanities (40% compared to only 15% in the country-wide sample). One possible explanation of this situation might reside in the relatively restricted scale of occupational options available to this category of student population, primarily oriented by their professors (and ultimately by the very nature of their professional fields) towards the teaching career.

This orientation, rather clearly defined already from the first university year, might well be to the students’ benefit, offering them the chance of a secure career path on the long run. However, to the Humanities graduates who, for a reason or another, find it impossible to engage in a pedagogical career, there are rather limited options remaining open within their own fields of study. That is why such students will likely find jobs outside their own pro- fessional fields, or alternatively, they might be able to start their own busi- nesses (which is the case of 16% of respondents).

In contrast, Economics graduates enjoy larger opportunities to find jobs in concordance with their field of study, some of them being able to secure employment already during their university years. The proportion of mature students, who are engaged in jobs connected to the field of their university studies at the moment of their admission, is the highest among Social Work students. At the opposite pole, to Arts students, job opportunities in their own fields are typically opening up only after graduation.

State schools of primary and secondary education where the teaching language is Hungarian are a preferred employment target for graduates of teacher training specializations, particularly in the Humanistic fields. Social workers also have a chance to be employed by a public institution within their