Cluj- Capital of Youth

Hello all!

During my student years I’ve been living in several cool places like Graz, Helsinki or Rochester, well-developed, greatly-organized, high living-standard countries' cities; however, as a student, I always felt best in Hungary and Romania. Even if Eastern-European countries’ norms don’t work as good as in the West, the atmosphere created around universities, campuses, and in general around student-life, is undoubtedly the best. I was not satisfied by the opportunities for students given by Austria and Finland. However, both are immaculate countries, perfect to live a happy and peaceful life in, considering the chapter of student-life (comparing with Romania or Hungary) they all were boring.

I think the poorer, or more under-developed societies give birth to the most creative ideas. I know, we have holes in the asphalt on Romanian car-routes, moreover, people park their cars directly on the bicycle paths in Cluj, and there are many more deficiencies in the nation's mentality. But that couldn’t stop the city of Cluj to win the EU’s ‘Capital of Youth 2015’ title. And it deserved this title for certain reasons.

You can disagree with me, but I think only people who experienced living without or with few opportunities can be the most ambitious and powerful. If there’s about changing something, constructing something together, Hungarian and Romanian students know how to act. I think this is a ‘congenital’ capacity, a bit influenced by the society as well. Only someone who endured certain conditions has the strongest willingness to change things in a better way, to assume the responsibility by making a change, think about solutions and be creative. This is why I think, that even if Romania and Cluj (compared with Western-European countries) have a lot of deficiencies, the atmosphere around student-life still is better than anywhere else! So let’s start getting to know student life of Cluj better:

These are the most popular universities in Cluj:

1) UMF- the faculty of Medicine ‘Iuliu Hatieganu’- with medicine, dentistry, pharmacy programmes, and majors like nursery, physiotherapy, and other health sciences. (www.umfcluj.ro). Modern technology, new glass building, very good theoretical and practical background, but be aware: a med student has less free-time than the others. I mean, passing the exams is not a piece of cake here.

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2) Babes-Bolyai University is the oldest and most famous Romanian university with a lot of majors and master programme opportunities. The uni has several faculties: math, and computer sciences, physics, biology, geology, chemistry, geography, environmental science and engineering, faculty of letters, history, philosophy, law, sociology, psychology, economics and business administration, political studies, communication, theology and theatre. (www.ubbcluj.ro)

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3) Technical University is next (Universitatea Politechnica). It gives mostly engineer majors: automation, architecture, machine building, electronics, mechanical/electrical engineering, environmental engineering and many more opportunities. (www.utcluj.ro)

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4) Sapientia University offers technical and human sciences, arts, engineering, economics and socio-human sciences. (www.sapientia.ro)

5) USAMV is the university of agricultural studies, horticulture, food technology and biotechnologies. Of course veterinary medicine studies as well. (www.usamvcluj.ro) The uni has its own horses and lot of farms and gardens. Students often go to study trips in food factories too.

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6) Last, but not least www.amgd.ro is the webpage for ‘Gheorghe Dima’ music academy.

There are other universities in Cluj as well, but these 6 are the top unis in Cluj-Napoca where you might possibly come with an ERASMUS Scholarship. Some faculties hold Hungarian programmes, for Hungarian people from Transylvania, others are 100% in English (for ERASMUS students and other English-speakers) or Romanian. At the Medicine Uni there are courses held in French as well (mostly people from French colony countries study in French) so it’s quite cool how many languages people can study in. Multilingualism brings multiculturalism, which is absolutely dominant around student-life in Cluj.

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I think it’s great that even if Cluj-Napoca is a small city with ‘only’ 180 square km, it has 6 big campuses and it’s crowded by students during the academic year. In the city centre you can find university buildings near each other, and this bring with itself the presence of pubs, cafés, street-food, canteens and clubs. During the academic year means of public transportation are full of students. Streets are full of students. In the weekend (mostly) pubs are overcrowded, and if you miss to reserve a table before, you can stay on your feet all night, because pubs are as well, full of students. Consequently, there are many discounts for students among transportation, free-time activities: sports and cultural events.

Compared with Budapest, Cluj's student life is a bit different. Budapest is also a great center for studying, hosting more than 350. 000 students. Budapest is bigger than Cluj, so this amount doesn’t seem too much because it dissipates. Cluj hosts 75. 000-85. 000 students, and it's 3 times smaller than Budapest, so this is a huge number of students, considering the resources of the city. In 2012 the population of Cluj was a bit above 300. 000, so that means that students have an important role in the life of Cluj.

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The presence of students 'heat up' Cluj. Due to this, the management of the city and also student associations are always busy by organizing programmes for students. Most of the programmes can be visited by locals of Cluj as well. International film festivals, exhibitions, concerts, competitions, sport days, food-festivals, outdoor and indoor activities, etc. If I watch my Facebook calendar when I'm in Cluj, well it weekly shows a programme-dumping. If I had more clones, than I could afford attending each event, but sadly I have only one body, and can choose only one programme. I have to repeat myself: when I decided writing a blog about my city of birth and my home-country, I didn't expect it to be this difficult.

Every country's general status (political, social, economical condition) influences how the respective country's inhabitants feel, I mean the general atmosphere. Of course in Cluj, and generally in Romania, establishing a good life, finding a good workplace with satisfactory salary, and willing to live there forever is almost impossible. That's why lot of people go to try their fortune abroad.

But this Erasmusu site is targeting Erasmus students, and should stay focused on student years. In conclusion, the connection between the country's background and the general mood of students from Cluj is microscopical. Cluj is perfect for living la vida ERASMUS there! Details coming soon...

Thanks for reading,

Dora

(If You're interested about more writings of mine, click on the following link: http://erasmusu.com/en/dora-csatari-560876/erasmus-blog)

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