Four universities in Romania enter symbolic strike over student places cuts

The students of four public universities in Romania have entered a symbolic strike over the cuts in available student places after the preliminary planning for the 2018-2019 academic year issued by the Education Ministry. The four universities are: the University of Bucharest, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, the Vest University in Timisoara and the Babeş Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. These are some of the largest and respected public universities in Romania and are among those that were left without hundred of places in their bachelor, master and doctoral programs. On the other hand, smaller universities have received more student places. One of them is the Ștefan cel Mare University in Suceava, whose former rector is the current education minister Valentin Popa. The Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy also received additional places, and the local Association of Medicine Universities welcomed the increase in student places for graduate medical schools. The students are asking the Education Ministry to look again into the allocation of the student places, taking into account the demand for the bachelor places, the recommendations of the Romanian Agency for the Quality of the Graduate Education (ARACIS), and the institutions’ academic results in each area of study. The Education Ministry previously said that the new allocation supports Romania’s priority areas for development, such as bio-economy, IT and communication, energy, environment and climate change, eco-nanotechnologies and health. The University of Bucharest (UB), which asked the ministry to go back to the previous allocation of student places, said it expects apologies from minister Popa for his statement that UB should not have received the ‘highly-trusted’ label from ARACIS. The UB also proposed the issuing of a yearly report on the number of university graduates that are employed within a year or two from graduating. Popa had previously said that the UB develops programs to ensure teaching norms for its teaching staff rather than by taking into account the demands of the labor market. At the beginning of the week, Popa said the allocation of the student places was a preliminary one and denied any political grounds to the allotment. Student places allocation sparks row in Romania’s public education sector (Photo: Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai Facebook Page) editor@romania-insider.com