Numerus clausus

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For the property law concept, see Numerus clausus (law).

Numerus clausus ("closed number" in Latin) is one of many methods used to limit the number of students who may study at a university. In many cases, the goal of the numerus clausus is simply to limit the number of students to the maximum feasible in some particularly sought-after areas of studies. However, in some cases, numerus clausus policies were religious or racial quotas, both in intent and function.

Modern use[edit]


Students in much of Europe choose their field of specialization when they begin university study, unlike students in North America, who specialize later. Fields such as medicine, law, biology, dentistry, pharmacology, psychology and business administration are particularly popular and therefore harder to gain admittance to study.



In November 2002 the Brazilian government passed Federal Law 10.558/2002, known as the "Quota Law". The law allowed for the establishment of racial quotas at public universities. In 2012 the Supreme court of Brazil unanimously upheld the law.[1]


The numerus clausus is used in Germany to address overcrowding and protect specific occupations. With successful completion of the academically oriented and state-approved secondary school (usually graduation from a Gymnasium or completion of the highest of the various degrees offered by a Gesamtschule, sometimes graduation from a Kolleg, a Volkshochschule or a Berufsoberschule), students take Abitur exams. They receive a document that confirms their passing and lists their grades. This is then used to obtain either an implicit or an explicit permission to study at a university. The German state in which an Abitur is granted must honor the permission to study at a university.[citation needed]

There are several quotas at the German universities.

  • at least 2 percent of students admitted must be so called Härtefälle (disadvantaged students, including those with disabilities and those in a difficult personal situation, such as orphans or people who have to care for a sick family member)
  • 20 percent of the students admitted must be "talented 20", the students, who graduated with a GPA that put them in the top 20 percent of their class (very few high school age students in Germany receive the highest possible GPA)
  • 20 percent of the slots must be granted to the students who have been wait-listed for the longest time
  • in the rest of cases the college may pick its students. It may apply different criteria.[2][3]

Before autumn 2005[edit]

On a federal level, each year 51 percent of the available university places in a given field of study, e.g. biology, are distributed among those who have the best Abitur marks, 25 percent of the places are awarded to applicants who are on a waiting list, and the following 24 percent are given to applicants who fulfill what is known as the "Hochschulkriterium", that is a set of criteria determined by the college or university concerned, based on interviews, written applications, Abitur marks in specific classes etc.

On the local level, applicants are distributed to the several universities. Effectively, about 25 percent are assigned to the university they want to attend (according to a list of preferences). The rest are given to applicants who have reasons to study in a specific place, e.g. if they have to care for children or if they are disabled.




In fields where the competition for study places is less fierce, the selection system resembles the German model. In universities, this is especially the case with the engineering and natural science programs. It is relatively easy to be accepted in these fields—about one-third of the study places in technology are awarded on the basis of the matriculation exam. The rest of the students are admitted on the basis of an entrance exam.




The introduction of the numerus clausus in Switzerland has limited the access to the medical studies at the universities. At all universities of the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the students need to have a high score on an aptitude test that comprises logical and spatial thinking and text understanding skills.

The universities in the western, French-speaking part of Switzerland did not decide to introduce a numerus clausus. Instead, these universities provide unrestricted access to the first-year curriculum in medicine; and the best first-year students are allowed to further their medical studies at the same or at another university.

In other popular faculties like psychology or journalism, there are also aptitude tests—but they concern only a single university.


Numerus clausus is also used in Ireland. University College Dublin uses the system in its admission for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.[4]

Historical use[edit]

Main article: Jewish quota

Before the Second World War, the limitations in eastern European countries were usually based on the religion and/or perceived race of the student[citation needed], specifically limiting the number of students of Jewish origin, due to their disproportionate number in the national universities.[5] See 'in Hungary' and 'in Poland' sections below.

This limitation took the form of total prohibition of Jewish students[citation needed], or of limiting the number of Jewish students so that their share in the student population would not be larger than their share in the general population (Jewish quota). It was introduced with a view to restricting Jewish participation in higher education due to their disproportionate numbers.



The Hungarian numerus clausus was introduced in 1920. Though the text did not use the term Jew, it was nearly the only group overrepresented in higher education[citation needed]. The policy is often seen as the first Anti-Jewish Act of twentieth century Europe.[7]

Its aim was to restrict the number of Jews to 6%, which was their proportion in Hungary at that time; the rate of Jewish students was approximately 15% in the 1910s.[8] In 1928—because of the pressure of liberal capital and League of Nations—a less explicit version of the act was passed. In the period of 1938–1945 the anti-Jewish acts were revitalised and eventually much worsened, partly due to German Nazi pressure, and in hope of revising the Treaty of Trianon with the help of Germany.[8]

Many Hungarian scientists such as Edward Teller emigrated partly because of the numerus clausus.[citation needed]


See also: Ghetto benches

Poland tried to introduce a formal numerus clausus law in 1923, but faced objections from the League of Nations. However a numerus clausus was unofficially introduced in 1937 by some universities and the share of Jewish students was limited to 10 percent, which was the proportion of Jews in the population of Poland (compared to 20–60 percent before regulation).


The other reason given by the supporters of the idea was that it was an attempt to equal the chance of children from countryside families who had very limited access to education to the chance of the children of Jewish families living in the towns and cities. This was because the Polish intelligentsia of Jewish origins formed at least 40–50 percent of the whole Polish educated class.

Similar policies, but based on preferential treatment of peasant children and working-class children, were introduced after World War II, with significant success. The children from working-class families had preference over students from the intelligentsia and bourgeois classes.

United States[edit]

Between 1918 and the 1950s a number of private universities and medical schools in the United States introduced numerus clausus policies limiting admissions of students based on their religion or race to certain percentages within the college population. Although many minority groups were negatively impacted by these policies, one of the groups affected was Jewish applicants, whose admission to some New England and New York City-area liberal arts universities fell significantly between the late 1910s and the mid-1930s.[9] For instance, the admission to Harvard University during that period fell from 27.6% to 17.1% and in Columbia University from 32.7% to 14.6%. Corresponding quotas were introduced in the medical and dental schools resulting during the 1930s in the decline of Jewish students: e.g. in Cornell University School of Medicine from 40% in 1918–22 to 3.57% in 1940–41, in Boston University Medical School from 48.4% in 1929–30 to 12.5% in 1934–35. During this period, a notable exception among U. S. medical schools was the medical school of Middlesex University, which had no quotas and many Jewish faculty members and students; school officials believed that antisemitism played a role in the school's failure to secure AMA accreditation.[10]

The most common method, employed by 90% of American universities and colleges at the time to identify the "desirable" (native-born, white, Protestant) applicants, was the application form questions about their religious preference, race, and nationality. Other more subtle methods included restrictions on scholarships, rejection of transfer students, and preferences for alumni sons and daughters.[citation needed]


The religion preference question was eventually dropped from the admission application forms and noticeable evidence of informal numerus clausus policies in the American private universities and medical schools decreased by the 1950s.[citation needed]

As related to matters other than education[edit]

Numerus clausus is also a rule that regulates the number of practitioners of a public service in many areas. In the U.S., for instance, it can limit the number of liquor stores to be found in a given geographic area.


In India the system of caste quotas for job placement is enforced,[12] and vigorously defended by strikes and riots.[13]



Main article: Numerus clausus (law)

Numerus clausus is also used in law, property law in particular, as the principle that the system of estates[14] allows only a limited number of property rights available in a legal system.[15] The numerus clausus principle has its roots in Roman law.[16] In German law the numerus clausus principle has a constitutional foundation[17] and limits property rights in their number (Typenzwang) and content (Typenfixierung). Other European states show equal doctrines.[18]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Brazil's Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in universities, KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Special to the AmNews | 5/16/2012, 6:04 p.m., Amsterdam News,
  2. ^
  3. ^ "Numerus Clausus aller Studiengänge einfach vergleichen". Retrieved 17 March 2016. 
  4. ^ EDge Interactive Publishing, Inc. "A Level/GCE Applicant". Retrieved 17 March 2016. 
  5. ^ "Sytuacja prawna Żydów w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1918–1939 - Żydowski Instytut Historyczny". Retrieved 2016-02-29. 
  6. ^ Freidenreich, Harriet Pass (1979) The Jews of Yugoslavia: A Quest for Community. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. "On Oct 5, 1940 the Royal Government in Serbia issued Two anti-Jewish decrees restricting them from producing or distributing food; and the other a numerous clausus law restricting enrollment in universities and high schools."
  7. ^ The "numerus clausus" policy of [[antisemitism or policy of higher education] Péter Tibor Nagy, The social and political history of Hungarian education
  8. ^ a b Miklos Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, CUP, 2001
  9. ^ a b c Getting In: the social logic of Ivy League admissions by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, 10 October 2005
  10. ^ Reis, Arthur H., Jr. "The Founding" (PDF). Brandeis Review, fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Retrieved 2006-05-17.  , pp. 42–3: founder's son C. Ruggles Smith quoted: "From its inception, Middlesex was ruthlessly attacked by the American Medical Association, which at that time was dedicated to restricting the production of physicians, and to maintaining an inflexible policy of discrimination in the admission of medical students. Middlesex, alone among medical schools, selected its students on the basis of merit, and refused to establish any racial quotas"
  11. ^ The Birth of a New Institution Geoffrey Kabaservice, Yale Alumni Magazine, December 1999
  12. ^ "Fear of OBC backlash may derail upper caste quota plan". timesofindia-economictimes. Retrieved 2016-02-29. 
  13. ^ France-Presse, Agence (2016-02-22). "Delhi faces water crisis after canal sabotaged in deadly protests". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-02-29. 
    J.M. Moringiello "Towards a system of estates in virtual property" International Journal of Private Law, vol. 1, nr. 1–2 / 2008 pp. 3–13
  16. ^ F Parisi "THE FALL AND RISE OF FUNCTIONAL PROPERTY" George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 05-38 2005
  17. ^ A Peukert "Güterzuordnung als Rechtsprinzip" (Mohr Siebeck, 2008) ISBN 978-3-16-149724-7;
    V. Jänich "Geistiges Eigentum – Eine Komplementärerscheinung zum Sacheigentum?" (Mohr Siebeck, 2002) ISBN 978-3-16-147647-1
  18. ^ B. Akkermans, "The Principle of Numerus Clausus in European Property Law" (Antwerpen/Oxford/Portland: Intersentia, 2008) ISBN 978-90-5095-824-0;
    T.H.D. Struycken, "De Numerus Clausus in het Goederenrecht" (Deventer: Kluwer, 2007) ISBN 978-90-13-04105-7;


  • MG Synnot, 'Anti-Semitism and American Universities: Did Quotas Follow the Jews?', in Jeffrey S. Gurock (ed), Anti-Semitism in America (Routledge 1998) vol. VI, part 2
  • T Merrill and H Smith, ‘Optimal Standardization in the Law of Property: The Numerus Clausus Principle’ (2000) 110 Yale Law Journal 1
  • H Hansmann and R Kraakman, ‘Property, Contract and Verification: The Numerus Clausus Problem and the Divisibility of Rights’ (2002) 31 Journal of Legal Studies 373