Magyarországi diákok az angol és skót egyetemeken (1789-1914)
Authors: Sárközi Gabriella 
Published: June 2024

The topic of my research is the Hungarian students at the universities of England and Scotland in the modem age (1789-1914). In this topic, prof. emer. George Gömöri carried on research-work on Hungarian students in England and Scotland (16—17th century) and there are other researchers and historians who are concerned with making scientific investigations on H ungarian and Transylvanian students abroad like Richard Hörcsik and Agnes Simovits. Moreover, regarding to the Transylvanian Unitarians: Elisabeth Zsakó and Andrew Kovács have to be mentioned. My research includes the studies of students from the Hungarian Kingdom and from Transylvania. I burrowed in sources and I collected references and trying to find all of the H ungarian students who studied in England and Scotland during the long 19th century. First of all I examined the matriculation books of Oxford and Cambridge which contain facts about the students’ birth-places, nationality or their origin, the date of entry, and their fathers' name. I also checked the registers of the colleges in w hich I found the same data. Furthermore, I burrowed in the documents of the H ungarian Protestant church districts, especially the documents of foreign affairs and of the educational administration. I also searched through the annual reports of Universities. After all I completed my data from different encyclopedias, like Pallas, Szinnyei's or Révai's. During the long 19th century 13 English and 4 Scottish universities existed. I found H ungarian and Transylvanian students in 4 English universities and in all the Scottish ones. Altogether there were 226 students. A couple of them studied in more universities. In England: 138. In London: 70, in Cambridge: 32, in Oxford: 30, in Manchester: 1, the target universities of 5 students are unknown. In Scotland: 101. In Edinburgh: 91, in Aberdeen: 5, in Glasgow: 3, in St. Andrew's: 2. (I mention that during my research I found 2 other Hungarian students who studied in Belfast.) Before 1860 we can't talk about the flow of students, according to my research there were only 10 students. 1 have to emphasize that my research has not been finished yet, consequently the num bers may change in the future. Studying in England and in Scotland wouldn't have been possible without the foreign or the home scholarships and foundations. I found that the greater part (more than 50 per cent) of the students who studied in England and in Scotland, traveled and studied with the assistance of English and Scottish foundations. More than 80 of the Hungarian students learnt theology at the Neu> College in Edinburgh, where a foundation was founded in 1863 for H ungarian and Czech reformed theological students; which granted 50 pounds per capital for 2 people from both of the countries in every year. Another foundation existed for Transylvanian Unitarians by the Manchester New College which institute was situated in London, than in 1889 it moved to Oxford. This college welcome 20 Transylvanian Unitarians who studied theology, pedagogy and other arts. For Transylvanian Unitarian women there was another scholarship - so-called the Sharpefoundation - in London at the Charming House School, which made possible for 16 Transylvanian women to study different studies in England between 1892 and 1914. Besides these foreign foundations there were H ungarian ecclesiastical relief funds which helped students who would have liked to study in England and Scotland. I found Szalapfoundation among the documents of the Trans-Danubian Church District. In other church districts there were other aids about 200 korona/crowns per capital and in special cases the church district awarded 400 crowns to a student to cover his travel expenses. In H ungary there were other foundations at the universities to maintain the students who wanted to study in England. After having finished their studies in Hungary, the medical students could gain experiences in England with the Benc-travelling-scholarship and w ith the Schordann-scholarship. In the early years of the 20th century medical students studied at the universities of England and Scotland for 2 years in general. Tor engineers there was the Abraham Ganz scholarship which made the way free to England. Furthermore, I found a Joseph Ferenc jubilee scholarship, it was the foundation of the city of Budapest which made possible for students to study abroad, especially in London. Besides these, other state-foundation existed for students. The religious distribution of the students is the following: Reformed: 100, Unitarian: 38, Catholic: 6, Jew: 8, Evangelical: 4. It can be ascertained that the greater part of the students were reformed and Unitarian who according to my research studied theology at the universities of England and Scotland. Regarding the origin of the students, more than 22% came from Transylvania. The 50% of the Transylvanians chose London as a destination. It is worth examining what kind of jobs they took and what kind of articles and books they wrote in connection with their English and Scottish studies after they had returned from England or from Scotland. The majority became teachers and pastors. First of all they examined the educational system of England and Scotland, secondly they saw the renewal of the Free Church of Scotland so they played an important role in the changes of the Hungarian Reformed Church. For instance the new institution whereas priests are working in prisons came from Scotland too. Owing to the fact that there were H ungarians who studied medical science in England, they acquainted H ungary with new scientific achievements. Those who became the m asters of English language found employment in diplomacy or they became interpreters and translators. As a result of their works, the writings of Darwin, John Stuart Mill and Shakespeare could be read in Hungarian. Those who got job in connection with politics or law, examined the Anglo-Saxon system of law and the English parliamentarism. They wrote books about the comparison of the H ungarian and English system of government, also about the international law ... etc. A m ong the Hungarian engineers Andrew Veress w ho finished his studies in England took part in building the first Romanian railway. What is more, the botanist, paleontologist and mineralogist Elek Pávai Vajna, who originated from Transylvania, studied natural sciencies in England. O n top of all, the famous Asia-scientist Aurel Stein studied in England too. Thanked to other students who were engaged in horticulture the English style of parks became know n in H ungary. As a conclusion I w ould like to summarise my experiences. The revealed data shows that the m ajor part of Hungarian students who studied in England and Scotland, were Reformed theological men students w ho studied with the aid of foreign foundations after 1860. W ithout a scholarship it was hard to get to England and Scotland, because of the distance and the other reason w as that the University of Cambridge and Oxford w ere elite schools and too expensive for Hungarians. In these schools the members of H ungarian aristocratic families could study like Ziehy s, Batthyány's, Esterházy's and Festetics’s. Thanked to their foreign studies the Hungarian students brought back the new scientific achievem ents and knowledge from England/Scotland w hich led to the modernization and scientific renewal of Hungary.