Pécs University Almanac: Goals and Results

Abstract

Studying in the social history of the citizens – either students or professors – of universities has a significant tradition and has produced serious results both within Hungary and abroad. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this research: university instructors themselves are decisive members of the knowledge elite and through higher education, they have the greatest influence in determining who gains access to this elite group.
The University of Pécs’s Almanac has a twofold purpose: on one hand, it presents the academic achievement of higher education in Pécs, and on the other, it provides help for the researchers of the various professions and social history. The first volume, which covers the period from the beginning until the 1950s, was published in 2015, and the second volume, which contains data until 2000, was released in 2017. The third is under preparation, covering the heads of departments, faculties and the university between 2000 and 2020 and it is due to be published in 2023. The database containing these volumes can be accessed online with a multi-criteria query. The database only collects data on scientific work, specifically, on scientific work carried out at today’s university and its legal predecessors, so it does not include data regarding religion, the parent’s/ guardian’s name, or social status, for example.
Who was included in the database? The requirement for inclusion was the existence of an academic title (nowadays, the title of PhD). Only full-time employees of the university were admitted into the database, not only from the faculties, but also from the library, or the offices if the person in question had an academic title.
In summary: the Almanac project can assist in historical research but only in conjunction with the use of data gathered from archival documents and texts of recollections, correspondence, and other sources. In order to gain data about social mobility, for instance, researchers need to carry out additional gathering work, but our database can serve as a solid ground. It also helps non-historians of the university construct their departments’ or faculties’ past.