Colleges of Advanced Studies, as Key Institutions in the Field of Talent-care and as Possible Channels of Social Mobility. Brief Presentation and Evaluation of the Possibilities of Implementation in Romania and other Post-socialist Countries

• Main Authors: Andras Csaba Gyorbiro, Georgina Ileana Szilagyi, Nora Alice Gyorbiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Expert Projects 2014-12-01
• Series: Sociologie Românească
• Subjects: social inclusion; talent-care; higher education; colleges for advanced studies
• Online Access: https://revistasociologieromaneasca.ro/sr/article/view/134

In our paper we will briefly present the historical background of the Hungarian Colleges for Advanced Studies. These institutions in the frame of the Hungarian educational system have been for decades identified with the concepts of “elite-training” due to both historical and professional reasons. We will not only mention the foreign examples which led to the expansion of these Colleges in Hungary but we will also present which social and political factors contributed to the appearance and evolution of the colleges. We also present the Colleges for Advanced Studies which recruit students of Roma origin, trying to push forward the Roma community`s social integration through forming young intellectuals. We try to analyze the social role of both the classical and the recently founded Roma colleges, and we demonstrate through qualitative research methods whether such institutions can contribute to the social inclusion of groups multiple disadvantages. We also analyze the possibility of transferring the concept and functioning methods of the colleges to other EU member states, especially to Romania, taking into the consideration all the factors which would theoretically favor the possibility of transferring the best practices but also evaluating the aspects which would make this process more difficult, mainly as result of the various educational traditions and social attitudes towards such institutions in the two countries.