The
University of Bucharest , in
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, is a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
founded in 1864 by
decreeA decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
of Prince
Alexander John CuzaAlexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:Born in Bârlad, Cuza belonged to the traditional boyar class in Moldavia, being the son of Ispravnic Ioan Cuza...
to convert the former
Saint Sava AcademySaint Sava College was one of the earliest academic institutions in Wallachia, Romania.-History:It was the continuator of the Princely Academy from Bucharest, and was initially located in the buildings of Saint Sava Monastery, nowadays the site of the University of Bucharest...
into the current University of Bucharest.
In 1694
Constantin BrâncoveanuConstantin Brâncoveanu was Prince of Wallachia between 1689 and 1714.-Ascension:A descendant of the Craioveşti boyar family and related to Matei Basarab, Brâncoveanu was born at the estate of Brâncoveni and raised in the house of his uncle, stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino...
, ruler of
WallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, had founded the Princely Academy of Saint Sava in
BucharestBucharest is the capital city, industrial and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River....
with lectures delivered in Greek. In 1776,
Alexander YpsilantisAlexander Ypsilantis was a Greek Voivode of Wallachia from 1775 to 1782, and again from 1796 to 1797, and also Voivode of Moldavia from 1786 to 1788...
, ruler of Wallachia, reformed the curriculum of the Saint Sava Academy, where courses of French, Italian and Latin were now taught.
The
University of Bucharest , in
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, is a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
founded in 1864 by
decreeA decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
of Prince
Alexander John CuzaAlexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:Born in Bârlad, Cuza belonged to the traditional boyar class in Moldavia, being the son of Ispravnic Ioan Cuza...
to convert the former
Saint Sava AcademySaint Sava College was one of the earliest academic institutions in Wallachia, Romania.-History:It was the continuator of the Princely Academy from Bucharest, and was initially located in the buildings of Saint Sava Monastery, nowadays the site of the University of Bucharest...
into the current University of Bucharest.
History
In 1694
Constantin BrâncoveanuConstantin Brâncoveanu was Prince of Wallachia between 1689 and 1714.-Ascension:A descendant of the Craioveşti boyar family and related to Matei Basarab, Brâncoveanu was born at the estate of Brâncoveni and raised in the house of his uncle, stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino...
, ruler of
WallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, had founded the Princely Academy of Saint Sava in
BucharestBucharest is the capital city, industrial and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River....
with lectures delivered in Greek. In 1776,
Alexander YpsilantisAlexander Ypsilantis was a Greek Voivode of Wallachia from 1775 to 1782, and again from 1796 to 1797, and also Voivode of Moldavia from 1786 to 1788...
, ruler of Wallachia, reformed the curriculum of the Saint Sava Academy, where courses of French, Italian and Latin were now taught. In 1859, the Faculty of Law was created. In 1857,
Carol DavilaCarol Davila was a prestigious Romanian physician of Italian ancestry.-Biography:He started from humble beginnings, most probably as an abandoned child, and the surname Davila was bestowed on him by his adoptive family....
created the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1857, the foundation stone of the University Palace in Bucharest was laid.
On July 4/16 1864 Prince Alexander John Cuza created the University of Bucharest, bringing together the Faculties of Law, Sciences and Letters as one single body. In the following years, new faculties were created: 1884 – the Faculty of Theology; 1906 – the Institute of Geology; 1913 – the Academic Institute for Electrotechnology; 1921 – the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; 1923 – the Faculty of Pharmacy, 1924 – the
Mina MinoviciMina Minovici was a Romanian forensic scientist, famous for his extensive research regarding cadaverous alkaloids, putrefaction, simulated mind diseases, and criminal anthropology...
Institute of Forensic Medicine.
In 1956, student leaders, mainly from this university, planned a peaceful protest against Romania's
Communist regimeCommunist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the leading role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
but were forcibly prevented from carrying it out. (See
Bucharest student movement of 1956The events in Poland which led to the elimination of that country's Stalinist leadership and the rise to power of Władysław Gomułka on 19 October 1956 provoked unrest among university students in Eastern bloc countries. The state of unrest in Poland began to spread into Hungary...
)
Post-1989 history
The area around the old University building (the
University SquareUniversity Square is located in downtown Bucharest, near the University of Bucharest.Four statues are located in the University Square, in front of the University; they depict Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Michael the Brave , Gheorghe Lazăr and Spiru Haret .The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad,...
), adjacent to the
C. A. RosettiConstantin Alexandru Rosetti was a Romanian literary and political leader, born in Bucharest into a Phanariot Greek family....
, Roman,
KogălniceanuMihail Kogălniceanu was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I...
, and Union Squares was the scene of many riots, protests and clashes with the
security forcesThe Securitate , was the secret service of Communist Romania. Previously the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului...
during the
Romanian Revolution of 1989The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a week-long series of increasingly violent riots and fighting in late December 1989 that overthrew the Government of Nicolae Ceauşescu. After a trial, Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were executed...
. During the months of April-June 1990, the University of Bucharest was the centre of
anti-communistAnti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism, especially Marxism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the growing popularity of the communist movement, and took on many forms during the 20th century....
protests.
In 1996,
Emil ConstantinescuEmil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
, the then
rectorThe word rector has a number of different meanings; they indicate an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the University of Bucharest, was elected
President of RomaniaThe President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . He or she can serve two terms. During his term in office, the President must not be a member of any political party.The current President of Romania is Traian...
, after defeating
Ion IliescuIon Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains.He joined the Communist Party in 1953 and became a...
in
national presidential electionsThese are the results of the Romanian presidential elections of November 3, run-off held on November 17, 1996:-First round:-Run-off:
...
.
Departments
Currently the University has 18 departments (faculties), covering fields such as natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and theology:
The University also has a publishing house, different research institutes and research groups (such as the Institute for Political Research, the Institute for Mathematics,
the Center for Byzantine Studies, the
Vasile PârvanVasile Pârvan was a Romanian historian and archaeologist, born in Huruieşti, near Bacău.He studied history in Bucharest, with Nicolae Iorga as one of his professors. He continued his studies in Germany. His Ph.D. thesis, written in 1909, was titled The nationality of merchants in the Roman Empire...
Archeology Seminary, the Center for Nuclear Research, etc.), master and doctorate programmes, and a number of life-long learning facilities and programmes. It has partnership agreements with over 50 universities in 40 countries, and participates in European programmes such as
ERASMUSThe ERASMUS programme, or European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, is a European student exchange programme established in 1987...
, Lingua, Naric, Leonardo da Vinci, UNICA, AMOS, TEMPUS, TEMPRA. It is an accredited
CiscoCisco Systems, Inc. is a multinational corporation with more than 65,000 employees and annual revenue of US$36.10 billion as of 2009. Headquartered in San Jose, California, it designs and sells networking and communications technology and services....
Academy, has
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
curriculum, and is accredited by
Red HatRed Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
for its academic programme.
The University of Bucharest has been awarded the 2000 National Academic Excellence Diploma, and the 2004 National Academic Excellence Medal. All of the degrees and diplomas awarded by the university are internationally recognised.
Facilities
The University of Bucharest has a number of buildings throughout Bucharest, so in that respect it does not have a single campus. Its two main buildings are:
- The Old Building, in the University Square (practically right in the center of the city), housing the Faculties of Mathematics and Computer Science, History, Chemistry, Geography, Letters and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
- The Kogălniceanu Building, near the Opera House
The Romanian National Opera is the national opera of Romania, situated in a historical building in Bucharest near the Cotroceni neighbourhood....
, housing the Administrative section and the Faculty of Law.
Other faculties have their own buildings and research facilities, scattered throughout the city, such as:
- The Departments of Germanic, Slavic and Oriental Languages and Literatures, on Pitar Moş street.
- The Faculty of Physics, in the small town of Măgurele
Măgurele is a town situated in the southwestern part of Ilfov County, Romania. Its population is 9,200.The town hosts a nuclear research lab, the Institute of Atomic Physics and its National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering. Between 1957 and 1998, it had a Soviet VVRS research...
, situated 16 km (10 miles) south of Bucharest.
- The Faculty of Political Science, on Sfântu Ştefan street.
- The Faculty of Orthodox Theology, in the Unirii Square
Piaţa Unirii is one of the largest squares in central Bucharest, located in center of the city where Sectors 1, 2, 3, and 4 meet...
This, mixed with the fact that student dormitories and other facilities are located in very different locations, prompted the University to print a yearly guide for freshmen.
Notable alumni
- Gheorghe I. Cantacuzino
Gheorghe I. Cantacuzino is a Romanian historian and archeologist.Gheorghe I. Cantacuzino studied at the Sfântul Sava High School, graduating in 1954. Thereafter he attended the courses of the Faculty of History at the University of Bucharest, specializing in history of the antiquity and archeology...
- archeologist
- Zoia Ceauşescu
Zoia Ceauşescu was a Romanian mathematician, the daughter of Communist leader Nicolae and his wife, Elena Ceauşescu....
- mathematician, daughter of Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967, and President of Romania from 1974 to 1989...
- George Ciucu - mathematician
- Iosif Constantin Drăgan
Iosif Constantin Drăgan was a Romanian and Italian businessman, writer and historian. In 2005, he was the second wealthiest Romanian, according to the Romanian financial magazine Capital, having a wealth estimated at $850 million...
- businessman, writer and historian
- Paul Timitriu - polititician and publicist
- Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
- historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago
- Mircea Cărtărescu
Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian poet, novelist and essayist.Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Romanian language and literature in 1980. Between 1980 and 1989 he worked as a Romanian language teacher, then as a civil servant at the Writers' Union and as...
- postmodern writer
- Eugen Filotti
Eugen Filotti was a Romanian diplomat, journalist and writer. As a diplomat he worked at the League of Nations in Geneva and then as minister plenipotentiary in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary. As minister plenipotentiary to Budapest he issued transit visas for Jews during the Holocaust...
- diplomat
- Horia Hulubei
Horia Hulubei was a Romanian chemist , known for his contributions to the development of x-ray spectroscopy.He studied at the University of Iaşi and obtained his pH.D...
- physicist
- Traian Lalescu
Traian Lalescu was a Romanian mathematician. His main focus was on integral equations and he contributed to work in the areas of functional equations, trigonometric series, mathematical physics, geometry, mechanics, algebra, and the history of mathematics.-Life:He went to the Carol I High School...
- mathematician
- Gheorghe Mihoc
Gheorghe Mihoc was a famous Romanian statistician. He was born in Brăila, the son of a worker.In 1908, his father moved the family to Bucharest. Here he attended elementary school and the Gheorghe Şincai high school...
- mathematician
- Grigore Moisil
Grigore Constantin Moisil was a Romanian mathematician, computer pioneer, and member of the Romanian Academy. His research was mainly in the fields of mathematical logic, , Algebraic logic, MV-algebra, algebra and differential equations...
- mathematician and computer scientist
- Miron Nicolescu
Miron Nicolescu was a renowned Romanian mathematician.Born in Giurgiu, he attended the Matei Basarab high school in Bucharest. After completing his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Bucharest in 1924, he went to Paris, where he enrolled at the École Normale...
- mathematician
- Grigore Iunian
Grigore Iunian was a Romanian left-wing politician and lawyer. A member of the National Liberal Party during the 1910s, he rallied with the Peasants' Party after World War I, and followed it into the National Peasants' Party , before leaving in 1933 to create the Radical Peasants' Party-Grigore...
- politician
- Ştefan Odobleja
Ştefan Odobleja was a Romanian scientist, one of the precursors of cybernetics. His major work, Psychologie consonantiste, first published in 1938 and 1939, in Paris, had established many of the major themes of cybernetics regarding cybernetics and systems thinking ten years before the work of...
- scientist, one of the precursors of cyberneticsCybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory...
- Octav Onicescu
Octav Onicescu was a Romanian mathematician, member of the Romanian Academy, and founder of the Romanian school of probability theory and statistics.-Biography:...
- mathematician
- George Emil Palade
George Emil Palade was a highly regarded Romanian cell biologist. In 1974, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve, for discovering the vacuole....
- cell biologist, 1974 Nobel Prize laureate
- Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos is the leader of a group of AIDS denialists who call themselves the "Perth Group" and have claimed since 1988 that HIV has never been fully isolated and therefore may not exist...
- Nuclear Physicist and AIDS denialists
- Valentin Poénaru
Valentin Poénaru is a Professor of Mathematics at Université de Paris-Sud. He specializes in low-dimensional topology.Born in Romania, he did his undergraduate studies at the University of Bucharest. In 1962, he was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm,...
- mathematician
- Constantin Rădulescu-Motru
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru was a Romanian philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, logician, academic, dramatist, as well as centre-left nationalist politician with a noted anti-fascist discourse...
- psychologist and sociologist
- Mircea Rusu - physicist
- Mihail Sadoveanu
Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting republican head of state under the communist regime...
- writer
- Gheorghe Taşcă
Gheorghe Taşcă was born on January 30, 1875 in Bălăbăneşti Tutova County . He was a Romanian economist and politician. He was professor of political economy and rector of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies of Bucharest Gheorghe Taşcă (birth name Iorgu Taşcă) was born on January...
- economist
- Şerban Ţiţeica - physicist
- Dan-Virgil Voiculescu
Dan-Virgil Voiculescu is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in single operator theory, operator K-theory and von Neumann algebras. More recently, he developed free probability theory.Voiculescu studied at the University of Bucharest, receiving his...
- mathematician
Notable faculty members
- Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu was a distinguished Romanian mathematician and poet....
also known as Dan Barbilian - mathematician and poet;
- Silviu Brucan
Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...
- political analyst and author
- George Călinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, Academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
- writer and literary critic
- Mircea Cărtărescu
Mircea Cărtărescu is a Romanian poet, novelist and essayist.Born in Bucharest, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Romanian language and literature in 1980. Between 1980 and 1989 he worked as a Romanian language teacher, then as a civil servant at the Writers' Union and as...
- Postmodern writer
- Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
- former President of Romania
- Petru Creţia - philologist
- Neagu Djuvara
Neagu Djuvara is a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat.-Early life:A native of Bucharest, he descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family...
- historian
- Alexandru Graur
Alexandru Graur was a noted Romanian linguist.Born into a Jewish family in Botoşani, Graur graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris . He obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Sorbonne...
- linguist
- Spiru Haret
Spiru C. Haret was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer and politician of Armenian descent. He made a fundamental contribution to the n-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approximation for the disturbing forces implies instability of the major axes of the...
- mathematician, astronomer and politician
- Iorgu Iordan
Iorgu Iordan was a Romanian linguist, philologist, diplomat, journalist, and left-wing agrarian, later communist, politician...
- linguist
- Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, university professor, literary critic, memorialist, playwright, poet, and politician...
- historian, literary critic and politician
- Traian Lalescu
Traian Lalescu was a Romanian mathematician. His main focus was on integral equations and he contributed to work in the areas of functional equations, trigonometric series, mathematical physics, geometry, mechanics, algebra, and the history of mathematics.-Life:He went to the Carol I High School...
- mathematician
- Gabriel Liiceanu
Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher.He graduated from University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy in 1965, and from Faculty of Classical Languages in 1973...
- philosopher
- Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society...
- literary critic
- Nicolae Manolescu
Nicolae Manolescu is a Romanian literary critic. As an editor of România Literară literary magazine, he has reached a record in reviewing books for almost 30 years...
-literary critic
- Solomon Marcus
Solomon Marcus is a Romanian mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the Romanian Academy and Emeritus Professor of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics...
- mathematician
- Adrian Năstase
Adrian Năstase is a Romanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.He competed as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance candidate Traian Băsescu.He was...
- politician
- Miron Nicolescu
Miron Nicolescu was a renowned Romanian mathematician.Born in Giurgiu, he attended the Matei Basarab high school in Bucharest. After completing his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Bucharest in 1924, he went to Paris, where he enrolled at the École Normale...
- mathematician
- Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history...
- writer and philologist
- Dimitrie Pompeiu
Dimitrie Pompeiu was a well-known Romanian mathematician.-Biography:...
- mathematician
- Alexandru Rosetti - linguist
- Ion Th. Simionescu
- Simion Stoilow
Simion Stoilow or Stoilov was a Romanian mathematician, creator of the Romanian school of complex analysis, and author of over 100 publications.-Biography:...
- mathematician
- Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, and President of the League of Nations. He served as president of the League of Nations for two terms. He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Biography:Nicolae Titulescu was born in Craiova to a solicitor...
- politician
- Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
- literary critic, philosopher
- Dan-Virgil Voiculescu
Dan-Virgil Voiculescu is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in single operator theory, operator K-theory and von Neumann algebras. More recently, he developed free probability theory.Voiculescu studied at the University of Bucharest, receiving his...
- mathematician
- Gheorghe Vrânceanu
Gheorghe Vrânceanu was a Romanian mathematician, best known for his work in differential geometry and topology....
- mathematician
External links
Official site