1912 is the year of the foundation of the University of Debrecen’s predecessor, the Hungarian Royal University of Debreczen, but the roots of higher education in the city date back to the 16th century. The Reformed College of Debrecen was established in 1538. For many long years the College played a major role in the development of Hungarian education and culture. In 1912, while Count János Zichy was minister of religion and public education, Parliament declared the foundation of two universities, one in Pozsony and the other in Debrecen, by adopting Law XXXVI. The City of Debrecen endowed the University with a large area of land, where the central building of the newly established Faculty of Medicine was inaugurated by King Charles IV in 1918. In 1921 the University adopted the name of a Hungarian statesman and former prime minister who used to study at the Reformed College and who died a martyr’s death on 31 October 1918, thus becoming the Hungarian Royal István Tisza University of Debrecen. The construction of a new main building for the University began in the 1920s and was opened in 1932. This was the country’s third largest construction project after the House of Parliament and the Royal Palace in Budapest. Today it is Hungary’s oldest continuously functioning institution of higher education, and its 15 faculties and 25 doctoral schools make it one of the country’s leading research institutes.