The University of Bucharest, commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy into the current University of Bucharest, making it the second oldest modern university in Romania. It is one of the five members of the Universitaria Consortium. The University of Bucharest offers study programmes in Romanian and English and is classified as an advanced research and education university by the Ministry of Education. In the 2012 QS World University Rankings, it was included in the top 700 universities of the world, together with three other Romanian universities.
History
The University of Bucharest was founded by the Decree no. 765 of July 4, 1864 by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza and is a leading academic centre and a significant point of reference in society. The University of Bucharest is rich in history and has been actively contributing to the development and modernization of Romanian education, science, and culture since 1694. In 1694 Constantin Brâncoveanu, ruler of Wallachia, had founded the Princely Academy in Bucharest with lectures delivered in Greek. In 1776, Alexander Ypsilantis, ruler of Wallachia, reformed the curriculum of the Princely Academy, where courses of French, Italian, and Latin were now taught. In 1859, the Faculty of Law was created. In 1857, Carol Davila created the University of Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1869, the Faculty of Medicine is created through the transformation of the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1857, the foundation stone of the University Palace in Bucharest was laid. On July 4/16 1864, Prince Alexander John Cuza created the University of Bucharest, bringing together the Faculties of Law, Sciences and Letters as one single body. In the following years, new faculties were created: 1884 – the Faculty of Theology; 1906 – the Institute of Geology; 1913 – the Academic Institute for Electrotechnology; 1921 – the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; 1923 – the Faculty of Pharmacy, 1924 – the Mina Minovici Institute of Forensic Medicine. In 1956, student leaders, mainly from this university, planned a peaceful protest against Romania's Communist regime but were forcibly prevented from carrying it out. For a while, it was called the "C. I. Parhon University", after C. I. Parhon. Most of the building is still intact, however during the bombardments of Bucharest in 1944, the central corpus of the building was heavily damaged and demolished due to Luftwaffe bombs, and was only re-constructed in 1969–1971. Other sections were also completed by 1980. The area around the old University building, adjacent to the C. A. Rosetti, Roman, Kogălniceanu, and Union Squares was the scene of many riots, protests and clashes with the security forces during the Romanian Revolution of 1989. During the months of April–June 1990, the University of Bucharest was the centre of anti-communist protests. In 1996, Emil Constantinescu, the then rector of the University of Bucharest, was elected President of Romania, after defeating Ion Iliescu in the 1996 Romanian presidential election.
Organisation
Faculties
The University of Bucharest has 19 faculties, covering various fields such as natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, and theology:
The University also has a publishing house, different research institutes and research groups, master and doctorate programmes, and a number of lifelong learning facilities and programmes. It has partnership agreements with over 50 universities in 40 countries, and participates in European programmes such as ERASMUS, Lingua, Naric, Leonardo da Vinci, UNICA, AMOS, TEMPUS, TEMPRA. It is an accredited Cisco Academy, has Microsoft curriculum, and is accredited by Red Hat for its academic programme.
Campus
The University of Bucharest has a number of buildings throughout Bucharest, so in that respect it does not have a single campus. Its two main buildings are:
The Old Building, in the University Square, housing the Faculties of Mathematics and Computer Science, History, Chemistry, Geography, Letters and the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
The Kogălniceanu Building, near the Opera House, housing the Administrative section and the Faculty of Law.
Other faculties have their own buildings and research facilities, scattered throughout the city, such as:
The Departments of Germanic, Slavic and Oriental Languages and Literatures, on Pitar Moş Street.
The Faculty of Physics, in the small town of Măgurele, situated south of Bucharest.
The Faculty of Orthodox Theology, in the Unirii Square
The University prints an annual guide for freshmen.
Rankings
In the 2012 QS World University Rankings, the University of Bucharest was included in the Top 601-701 universities of the world, together with three other Romanian universities, including Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași. The University of Bucharest has been awarded the 2000 National Academic Excellence Diploma, and the 2004 National Academic Excellence Medal. All of the degrees and diplomas awarded by the university are internationally recognised.
Affiliations
The University of Bucharest is a member of numerous international organisations and partnerships, including: As part of the on-going ERASMUS programme, the University of Bucharest has approximately 225 Erasmus agreements with European partner universities.
