Numerus clausus
Numerus Clausus ("closed number" in Latin) means limiting the number of students in universities and colleges. The Numerus Clausus doesn't allow all students who passed the exam to enter university.
Numerus clausus used according to a discriminatory rule.
Before the Second World War the limitations were usually based, in eastern Europe, on the religion of the student, as the number of students of Jewish origin was limited. After WW2, similar regulations, including positive discrimination based on racial or social criteria (e.g. peasants), were introduced in many countries, including Poland and United States.
The limitation took the form of total prohibition of Jewish students, or of limiting the number of Jewish students so that their share in the students' population would not be larger than their share in the general population. It was motivated by contemporary view of the balancing chances for education for ethnic groups.
The numerus clausus policies affected a limited number of people, since the number of university students before WW2 was very small.
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2 Numerus clausus in Poland 3 External links |
Countries legislating limitations on the admission of Jewish students
Jews who wanted education used various ways to handle this obstacle: bribing the authorities, changing their religion, or traveling to countries without such limitations. In Hungary, for example, 5,000 Jewish youngsters (including Edward Teller) left the country after the introduction of Numerus Clausus.
Poland tried to introduce a formal Numerus Clausus law in 1923, but faced objections from the League of Nations. However Numerus Clausus was introduced unofficially in the 1937 by the universities and the share of Jewish students was limited to 10%, that was more or less the proportion of Jews in the population of Poland (compared to 20%-40% before regulation).
Numerus clausus in Poland
Paradoxically, the numerus clausus caused many Jewish students to emigrate from Poland, and therefore saved their lives during German Holocaust, see Alfred Tarski. It must be underlined, that the numerus clausus was introduced at the level of universities, which in those times didn't educate many students. However, the introduction of the policy must have had immense influence on the level of the average student.
The official reason of the policy was that during Russian Tsar's rule, Poles were discriminated in area of education. They were denied education in Polish, and the schools were badly funded in the countryside. The advocates of the solution pointed out that the limit would balance the chances of all nationalities, populated Poland to access education.
The other official reason was that it was an attempt to equal the chances of children from countryside families, that had very limited access to education, with the access of Jewish families living in the towns and cities. Nevertheless, Polish intelligence of Jewish origins had at least 40-50% of the whole intelligence. The genocide of Jewish intelligentsia and genocide of Polish intelligentsia during WW2 (see Holocaust, Katyn massacre) badly affected development of Polish economy and society after WW2.
Similar policies, but based on positive discrimination of peasant children, were introduced after WW2, but with little effect.
Another form of positive discrimination in Poland was the law enforcing an equal number of Medicine students of both genders, despite the fact that female students usually performed better on exams.
All forms of discrimination were abolished in Poland after 1989.External links