Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

The Dislocated Transylvanian Hungarian Student Bodyresentful, since both “new” universities were close to the Hungarian-Romanian border and attracted Hungarian students from Transylvania.Especially the Szeged University elicited distress, since it apparently functionedas if it was still the University of Kolozsvár. In the eyes of theRomanian authorities, Hungarian students returning from Szeged wereradiating irredentism. The Romanian government was eager to seize anypretext to stop the traffic of students and diplomas across the border, andwhen the Hungarian government refused to recognize the Czechoslovakand Romanian governments, Romania also refused to recognize Hungariandiplomas. The Romanian Ministry of Education went even further andexplicitly forbade Magyar students to go to Hungary for their studies. 3In the given context, the massive presence of refugee students inHungary came first as a shock, yet in a few years it was interpreted almostas a natural matter. With a high rate of academic overproduction, generaldistress and intellectual unemployment, their presence seemed to bejustified, as it underlined the rightfulness of cultural revisionism. 4 In bothgovernment decrees (1921 and 1924), forbidding the influx of refugees inunaccountable numbers and cases, students coming into the country inorder to have their studies completed were consequently treated as exceptionsto the rule. The Országos Menekültügyi Hivatal (National RefugeeOffice, OMH) had a separate office to assist students financially. Meageras these resources were, especially in Budapest, where the majority of studentsarrived in the first three years after 1918, this assistance amountedto one-third of OMH’s emergency budget. Thus, in the period of 1918-1924, the financial assistance offered by OMH (including cash, goods, andcredit) amounted to 270,124,435 Hungarian koronas. The share of theStudent Aid Office was 91,322,891 koronas, representing 33.8% of thetotal amount. Taking into consideration that one-third of the sum went forcredits to small enterprises, the share of students rose to over 50% of thefinancial assistance provided by OMH. 5Major refugee organizations, especially the “Popular Literary Association”(NIT), sought to assist Hungarian minorities of the successorstates in maintaining their network of institutions, especially in the realmof culture and education. It was under NIT patronage that the “Associationof Szekler University Students” (SZEFHE) 6 was created (with about1,000 members during the 1920s). SZEFHE had a Foreign Affairs Department,which conducted a research project on Romanian-Hungarian relations.Already in 1923, they proposed that, instead of leaving for Hungary,ethnic Hungarian students from Transylvania should study at home. TheHungarian government was requested to dedicate funds for creating a collegefor Hungarian students in Kolozsvár. Yet it was not until the end ofthe twenties that financial assistance for Hungarian minority education181