Eutopia | Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca

Brief history of Babeș-Bolyai University

BABEȘ-BOLYAI UNIVERSITY (UBB) holds the distinction of being Romania’s oldest academic institution, founded 443 years ago in 1581 as a Jesuit college. It proudly stands as the largest academic community in Romania, with over 45,000 students, and more than 3,000 Romanian and international staff members. Since its inception, UBB has consistently held a place among the region’s most esteemed higher education institutions. Nowadays, its unique character is defined by its pluri-linguistic, multicultural, and multi-confessional environment and structure, having three official academic languages (Romanian, Hungarian, German), offering academic programmes in many more languages across 22 faculties, including four faculties of theology. With that regards UBB is probably the most complex university in the European Union.

Over the past seven years, UBB has consistently ranked first in the country. UBB boasts advanced academic infrastructure, including research, development, and innovation units integrated into European networks.

In 2021, following an international audit by QS, UBB was officially recognized as Romania’s first five-star university. Moreover, in 2020, UBB was accepted into the GUILD, an organization comprising some of Europe’s most prestigious research-intensive universities. The university has also received the HR Award for Excellence.

UBB joined the EUTOPIA European university alliance in 2021, further solidifying its commitment to excellence in higher education and research.

WHO IS…

Victor Babeș (1854 in Vienna – 1926 in Bucharest), a famous Romanian microbiologist, Louis Pasteur’s student and follower, renowned for his research on rabies, leprosy, diphtheria and tuberculosis. He became professor of the University of Cluj after the 1st World War.

The Bolyais are a famous Hungarian family of mathematicians. Farkas Bolyai (1775 in Buia – 1856 Târgu Mureș) was a well-known professor of mathematics, friend of Carl Friedrich Gauss. His son, János Bolyai (1802 in Cluj – 1860 in Târgu Mureș) was the founder on non-Euclidean geometry.