Romania has few tertiary education graduates relative to the general population while seeing high dropout rates among those who are enrolled in university studies. Two reports from the Education Ministry and OECD have highlighted the issue and offered suggestions for policy changes that could improve the situation.

Only 16% of the country's adult population has graduated from higher education, compared to a European average of 30%, the Diagnostic Report on Education and Research in Romania (The QX Report) explains. Among young people aged 24 to 34, the percentage is between 23% and 26%, significantly lower than the 40%-43% at the European level.

The report, which outlines several issues and challenges of the local education system and proposes solutions to them, mentions a dropout rate of more than 40% for those in their first year of a bachelor's degree (1) and even higher for those enrolled in doctoral studies. 

At the same time, the rate of adults engaging in lifelong learning is low, at 5.4% in 2022, which is less than half the EU average of 11.9% and well below the 17.4% target that Romania has set for 2030.

Compounding the issue is the low level of skills among adults. Only approximately 33% possess an adequate level of digital skills, which is below the EU average of 54%. Furthermore, approximately 20% of the population is functionally illiterate in the area of literacy, more than double the international average of 8.9%, while 27.5% are functionally illiterate in numerical ability, in contrast to an international average of 8.6%.

Myth versus need

The human resource formed in local higher education institutions does not rise up to the country's potential level, the report explains, while labeling the idea that there are too many students in the country a myth.

It is a theme that Education Minister Daniel David has spoken on extensively, insisting that the country needs more higher education graduates. In an interview with Digi24 this January he argued that the country needs more tertiary education students - not fewer and better, as some of his colleagues would prefer. Leaving students out of higher education means that they become easier victims of manipulation or fake news, he insisted.

At the same time, he argued the Bachelor's degree should bring the value of general knowledge. "The Bachelor's degree should be seen today as, perhaps, high school was in our grandparents' time. That is, as many people as possible should reach the Bachelor's level. The Bachelor's degree should not be very strongly linked to specialization, except in vocational fields […]. In other fields, it should be more general, like the undergraduate degree in the US, so that the young person can familiarize themselves with the field, see if this is what they want to do, if they like it, and, after that, specialization is done at the master's level and, possibly, at the doctoral level," he said.

In April, upon announcing an initial budget for a program focused on preventing university education dropout, he brought up the issue again.

"We need more higher education graduates. If we don't have them, we shouldn't be surprised that we are a society vulnerable to pseudo-science, pseudo-knowledge, pseudo-religion and that things we see around us are happening, manipulations, conspiracies, one more dangerous than the other," he said.

While acknowledging that the scientific knowledge generated by local universities is not competitive enough, as evidenced by international rankings that do not place the country in highly competitive spots, the QX Report outlines a mission for the national higher education system "to form a highly qualified human resource," that keeps and develops their learning abilities throughout their lifetime. BA degrees should aim to generate a direct connection to the existing labor market, the report argues. This is more specific in vocational areas, and more general in other areas. Meanwhile, MA and PhD degrees should emphasize specialization. The report also speaks of the need for STEM competencies, but also relevant social-human ones.

What is required for university admission?

Each university, as well as individual departments within a university, has its own specific admission criteria. One requirement for admission to Bachelor's degree programs that is shared across the board is the passing of the Baccalaureate exam, the national exam at the end of high school. Depending on the criteria of each university, the overall average obtained at the Baccalaureate or the grades in certain parts of the exam are taken into account, alongside other criteria such as high school GPA, entrance exams designed by each institution, aptitude tests, or portfolios for fields like the Arts or Design.

Most students are enrolled in public tertiary education institutions (TEIs), where most programs are full-time, and there are fewer part-time options compared to those in private institutions. Most public TEIs offer doctoral study programs, whereas only a few private ones provide this option.

In the 2023-2024 academic year, there were 87 accredited higher education institutions, of which 52 were public ones and 35 private. That year, 544,623 students were enrolled in university studies, 483,100 of whom were in the public system: 414,998 were attending BA programs, 104,934 were in MA programs, 21,630 were in doctoral programs, and 3,061 were in post-university studies.

Accessibility and equity challenges

The OECD report Education and Skills in Romania, released this May, provides a snapshot of the challenges related to access and participation in tertiary education.

It notes that Romania's low tertiary attainment rate is partially driven by a "notable over-reliance on the traditional entry cohort from upper secondary education to drive enrolments."

In the Eurostudent VII comparative survey, quoted in the OECD report, 81% of the surveyed Romanian students in tertiary education reported transferring into tertiary education within 12 months of completing secondary education, compared to an average of 66% across the surveyed countries.

This year, for instance, fewer than 100,000 pupils from the current cohort have registered to take the high school graduation exam, according to estimates from the Education Ministry. The number of 94,400 students is the lowest in the past 20 years, according to an analysis by Edupedu.ro. From 2021 to 2024, more than 110,000 pupils from the respective cohorts registered every year to sit the Baccalaureate, while in 2020, the year the pandemic started, there were more than 120,000.

Students also have less support in completing upper secondary education and accessing tertiary education compared to other OECD and EU countries.

The country has a low share of adults enrolled in education: 10% of adults aged 25-29 were enrolled in formal education in 2022, compared to the OECD average of 16% for the same cohort.

Another factor adding to the low participation in tertiary education is the limited enrollment in part-time tertiary education, compared to other EU and OCED countries. Romania has had, over the last decade, a share of 8-9% part-time students among the total students enrolled in tertiary education, while the EU-27 average stands at 14%. Neighboring Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have significantly higher shares of part-time students: 28% of students in Latvia, Hungary, and Poland study part-time. Furthermore, the number of students enrolled in distance education is also low and decreasing: only 2,400 students were enrolled in this form of study in the 2022-2023 academic year.

Although it aims to increase its share of international students, the country is not a preferred destination for students from abroad. In 2022, 6% of the students in tertiary degree programs were foreign ones, lower than most countries in the CEE region, including Hungary (14%), Slovenia (9%), Czechia (16%) and similar to Poland (7%). Meanwhile, Romania is a net sending country of students and staff on ERASMUS mobility experiences, registering one of the highest ratios of outgoing to incoming students in Europe.

When discussing the widespread tertiary education dropout, the OECD report mentions financial barriers as a notable factor contributing to this phenomenon. Scholarships and tuition-free places are primarily awarded based on merit, rather than social need, the report explains, and students who pay tuition fees at public institutions have higher dropout rates. A total of 53% of those paying tuition dropped out compared to 38% of those with tuition-free places in the 2015 cohort, while the dropout rates for private institutions were above 62%

The OECD report also points to a "lack of coherence between upper secondary pathways and programs available at tertiary level"

Graduates of vocational upper secondary schools see particularly high tertiary dropout rates, which suggests "issues both with the relevance of existing tertiary options for these students, and with the quality of vocational high schools in terms of preparing young people for success in further education." Dropout rates are also high among enrolled older adults, many of whom already have work experience, indicating a lack of flexibility in accommodating working students.

Rural vs urban gaps in access persist

Besides the high dropout rates, local tertiary education is also marked by substantial gaps in participation between students from urban and rural areas. Students in rural areas face obstacles in accessing tertiary education across OECD countries, but these challenges are particularly evident in the country.

The tertiary attainment rate of 25‑64-year-olds in rural areas amounted to 6.2% in 2023, well below the EU-27 average of 25.5%, and rural attainment has barely increased in the past decade. Differences persist between larger urban areas and those less urbanized and populated. For instance, 39.4% of 25‑64 year-olds attained tertiary education in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, compared to just 12.6% in the largely rural Sud-Muntenia region, the report explains.

Although the Romanian authorities offered specific tuition-free, state-funded places to graduates of high schools in rural areas for the 2022-2023 academic year, only 1,207 of the 2,000 available places were filled.

The OECD report also notes that the Roma community is severely underrepresented in tertiary education. Reserved places are made available annually for Roma students, but these are not fully filled.

The positives

For those who do graduate from tertiary education, the outcomes in the labor market are positive, the OECD report notes.

Employment rates among tertiary-educated young adults stand at 91%, almost double those of their peers with below upper secondary education, which are at 48%. Tertiary education graduates also earn more than those with lower levels of education. Workers who graduated from tertiary education (25-64 year-olds) earn, on average, 43% more in Romania, compared to an average of 52% in the EU and 56% in OECD countries. As is the case in other OECD countries, graduates in fields that are in demand, such as ICT, engineering, manufacturing, and construction, also tend to have higher employment rates.

What has been done so far?

This April, the Education Ministry approved the methodology for the National Program for Reducing University Dropout (PNRAU).

The measures proposed by PNRAU aim to increase student retention by adapting to the characteristics of every university, and look at the early identification of those at risk of dropping out, and offering specific academic, social, and financial support.

The program, worth RON 100 million (approximately EUR 20 million), encompasses measures such as remedial and mentoring courses, support for non-traditional students who are already parents or employees, and institutional plans to prevent student dropout.

The program aims to offer support, such as hybrid or online courses, and partnerships with daycare centers and kindergartens in the case of students who are also parents.

Universities can offer tailored academic and professional counseling that takes into account the needs of students and helps them better manage their time and prioritize tasks, enabling them to complete their studies. They can also develop academic and psychological counseling programs meant to help students in difficulty improve their academic performance and manage stress better.

PNRAU can support various career fairs for students and graduates, organized in partnership with the universities' institutional and business partners to facilitate access to internships, traineeships and jobs. It can also support the establishment of counseling and career orientation centers in universities. These centers would be tasked with counseling students who are at risk of dropping out of their studies.

The funding for the program is provided from the Education Ministry's budget and non-refundable EU funds.

What is the OECD recommending?

To achieve a more equitable balance between performance-based and need-based allocation, Romania could reserve a share of the state-funded tuition places for students with incomes below a designated limit, the OECD report recommended.

When it comes to the allocation of scholarships, the country could implement a centralized allocation mechanism based on criteria that combine both merit and need, rather than the current merit-oriented, decentralized approach.

Improving information resources for students about study programs, streamlining the current admissions process, while creating a specific entry mechanism for mature students are other measures recommended. This could mean, for instance, having a quota of state-funded places in undergraduate programs specifically for adults, as it happens in Ireland or Spain.

To counteract the rural-urban divide, the country could consider introducing targeted financial incentives for students to enroll in regional institutions, the OCED recommends. Furthermore, fully online programs or hybrid ones could be deployed to enhance rural and regional access to tertiary education, among other measures.

(1) A 2022 survey by the Ministry of Education's Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) showed that roughly 48% of undergraduate students in Romania who started college in 2015 dropped out.

* The number of students has remained relatively constant over the past decade, as shown in the Education Ministry's report on the State of Higher Education 2023-2024. It does, however, reflect the demographic decline compared to the peak of around 900,000 students in the 2007-2008 academic year and more than 700,000 in the years preceding it. (National Institute of Statistics data).

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simona@romania-insider.com