The Role of European Universities in Shaping the Romanian and South-East European Political Elites in the 19th Century

Abstract

During the 19th century, the South East European countries experience a radical cultural, institutional and political change. Like throughout the rest of Europe, this change is intricately related to the university, in all its forms and expressions – higher education institution, as well as locus of forging, transmitting and reproducing ideas, cultures, university elites, and ultimately political elites. Within the Romanian space, this impact is particularly noticeable as the thousands of young people that studied abroad in European universities and returned home became not only its first intellectual and professional generations but also its reforming and modernising elites.