Lucian Blaga University - Sibiu

It was a Theological-Pedagogical School which in 1786 marked the beginning of Higher Education in Sibiu. In 1850, the School changed its profile and became a Theological-Pedagogical Institute for Higher Education, which initially offered two-year courses, and starting with 1861, three-year courses; simultaneously, a Pedagogical section was founded, with a four-year program of studies.

Yet, the socio-economic realities of the time were acutely asking for specialists trained in law and administration. Aware of these imperious needs, the German population, which enjoyed at that time a privileged status, as compared to the Romanian majority which was only tolerated in Transylvania, managed to inaugurate an Academy of Law in Sibiu, in 1844. Yet, years would pass by in their implacable flight, and Sibiu would not see another institute of higher education. The strivings and the efforts of the local community to open one would amount to nothing. But, as if it were an irony, Fate, whose playthings we seem to be, almost forced us to have a University, actually to shelter it. It was a time of internecine war, the Second World War.

Who would have thought that the War might have beneficial effects on a city long disfavored by History?

Who would have imagined that the Dictate of Vienna (1940) which maimed Romania by awarding Northern Transylvania to Hungary, might actually mean a new beginning for higher education in Sibiu, by forcing the University of Cluj to find a shelter in Hermannstadt?

In 1945 the University of Cluj would return home, but it would leave its spirit behind. It was only in 1969 that the School of History was founded as a branch of the University of Cluj. Two years later, it was turned into the School of Philology and History, whose Department of Philology included German, English and Romanian sections. In the same year, the School of Public Administration - with a program of studies not found elsewhere in Romania - came into existence. The following year meant a new School, the School of Wood-Processing, functioning as a branch of the University of Brasov.

Shortly after the 1989 Revolution - which claimed the second greatest number of martyrs in Sibiu - the Ministry of Education did justice to the long-victimized city. In recognition of Sibiu’s certain potential as an academic center, the Ministry decreed, on March, 5, 1990, the founding of a University encompassing five Schools: Letters, History and Law, Medicine, Food and Textile-Processing Technology, Engineering, and Sciences. On 12 May 1995, the University of Sibiu was granted the name of the distinguished Romanian writer and philosopher, Lucian Blaga.

It was a new beginning and this time nothing could prevent the unfettering of the resources which had lain dormant. Nothing could prevent the University of Sibiu from becoming what it deserved to be: a center of academic excellence and social renewal.

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