Fondarea unei „jurisdicții” profesionale

Evoluția învățământului superior tehnic în România 1881-1938

Abstract

The aim of this study is to highlight the competing visions on the development of higher education system in Romania, with a special emphasis on technical superior education. The research relies on the sociological theories regarding the “making” of the profession, a historical phenomenon that gained importance in the European societies during the 19^th  and  the first half of the 20^th century. According to Andrew Abbott’s idea, expressed in The System of Professions, “the central phenomenon of professional life is the link between a profession and its work, a link I shall call jurisdiction”[1].

Starting from Abbott’s theory on professions, the study will focus on the debate regarding the institutionalization of an educational system that was supposed to provide professional expertise for its students, i.e. future engineers. Furthermore, the paper  emphasizes the conflict and the competition between polytechnic institutions and universities, which both fought for the monopoly of the professional formation. This competition led to a debate and, at times, a legal conflict between the rivalling institutions, revealing antonymic visions of the cultural and socio-economic role of higher education. Professional associations, especially The General Association of Engineers from Romania (AGIR) (founded in 1918)  played an increasingly important role in defining and delineating the privileges of the engineering professions.

[1] Abbott, 1988: 20.