Társadalmi mobilitás és felsőoktatás az 1950-es években

Zalán István Haág

doi:10.3311/ope.42424

Authors

Zalán István Haág

Affiliation

Zalán István HAÁG He is a lecturer at the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. He graduated from the University of Szeged with degrees in History and Communication. He completed the absolutorium at the Doctoral School of Education of the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University in Eger. His research focuses on the history of student movements during the 1956 revolution and the subsequent period, as well as in the 1980s and 1990s.

Abstract

In my study, I briefly examined the emerging Hungarian communist system's attempts to establish new channels of social mobility. The transformations carried out in the Hungarian educational system during the 1950s, particularly in higher education, such as the introduction of extended compulsory education, the nationalization of schools, the reorganization of institutions of higher education along Soviet lines, and the consolidation of party control, aimed to cultivate a new elite loyal to the regime. Of particular significance was the facilitation of access to higher education for young people of "worker-peasant origin", primarily through specialized matriculation examinations.

However, as the revolution later demonstrated, these measures did not fully achieve their objectives. Many university and college students sought to assert themselves as intellectuals, and young people voiced numerous criticisms of the system even before 1956. The forceful restructuring of higher education also generated several problems. Dissatisfaction with the quality of education and campus life - which was closely linked to broader critiques of the regime - played a crucial role in motivating university and college students to take action, a first step on the road to the revolution.