Romania woos minority with university

Romania is investigating establishing a multilingual university in an effort to ward off a threat by the Hungarian minority party to withdraw from the ruling coalition.

A Hungarian university has long been a demand of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania. But the government was reluctant to permit a university run on single ethnic lines. The latest proposal, however, is for a university that runs parallel courses in Hungarian and German.

Romania's once sizeable German minority shrank considerably during the 1980s when president Nicolae Ceaucescu struck an unofficial bargain with Bonn to allow ethnic Germans from Romania to emigrate to West Germany - at a price of several thousand marks a head, paid by Bonn.

The remaining Germans do not constitute a political force and have made no demand for a university teaching in German.

But the inclusion of German-taught courses, and the proposed name - the Petoefi-Schiller University - appears to be a ploy to satisfy demand for a concession for ethnic Hungarians. A special commission is to conduct a feasibility study. Its report will go for approval to the committee responsible for awarding higher degrees.

Government spokesman Razvan Popescu said that only if the first two intakes of students can achieve a minimum of 51 per cent of successful graduates will it receive final accreditation from the government.