In Romania higher education is provided by universities, institutes, study academies, schools of higher education, and other similar establishments, collectively referred to as higher education institutions (HEIs) or universities. HEIs can be state-owned or private; they are non-profit, apolitical in nature and focused on the public interest. Romania has a central government office that authorizes and approves educational institutions. The Romanian Ministry of Education is the national institution to which all higher education institutions look for guidance and report to.
There are 56 accredited public institutions, and 41 private ones (as of 2016). Universities are divided into three tiers:
Universities focusing on education;
Universities focusing on education and scientific research, and universities focusing on education and art;
Universities with an advanced research and education focus.
Based on this classification, the Ministry of Education has published a detailed ranking of Romanian universities.
Some of the most prominent Romanian universities are also the oldest modern Romanian universities:
University of Iași (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University) (1860)
University of Bucharest (1864)
University of Cluj (Babeș-Bolyai University) (1919)
Romania follows the Bologna scheme and most of its tertiary level programmes is made of three cycles: a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a two-year master's degree, and a three-year doctoral's degree. However, some programmes take longer to complete, for example those in engineering fields (four-year programmes), or some bachelor's and master's degree are combined into a unique six-year programme (medicine, and architecture). Master's programs are a prerequisite for admission to PhD programs. Vocational education is handled by post-secondary schools with programmes lasting two years.
The entire system is based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). Since multiple-major programs are not available at Romanian universities, a student wishing to specialize in several areas of study is allowed to simultaneously attend several universities as a full-time student. Accreditation and diploma certification is in the hands of the National Center for Diploma Certification and Equivalency, and ARACIS, the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, both coordinated by the Ministry of Education.
In 2016, 531,586 students were enrolled in Romanian's 97 universities, in all three cycles, of which 464,642 were in public institutions. 76.3% of the students were enrolled in the first cycle (bachelor level), 20.1% in the second cycle (master level) and 3.6% in the third cycle (doctoral studies).
Romanian universities have historically been classified among the best in Eastern Europe and have attracted international students, especially in the fields of medicine and technology. Foreign students accounted for 27,510 (5.1% of enrollment, as of 2016).
Universities have full autonomy, in stark contrast from the pre-university segment. Each university is free to decide everything from their management to the organization of classes. Furthermore, many universities devolve this autonomy further down, to each department.
The Ministry of Education established the National Authority for Scientific Research (Authoritatea Națională pentru Cercetare Științifică). This agency emerged from specific requirements designed to promote the development of a knowledge-based society. As in the other Eastern European countries, the Romanian higher education system has witnessed major transformations after 1990, in order to adapt its national educational framework to the European Union.
Admission
The admission process is left to the Universities, and, as of 2007, there is no integrated admission scheme. Some universities will give an "admission exam" in a high-school subject that corresponds best to the training offered by the university. Others, however, due to the lack of relevance of the system have begun implementing a different scheme, based on essays, interviews and performance assessments. This was done because in most cases tests, especially multiple choice ones, offered just a superficial assessment and a limited outlook of the students' actual performance.
International programs
The professors have been trying to adapt curricula to that of their counterparts from North America or Western Europe. After 1990, Romania has started many projects supervised by countries from the European Union and also in collaboration with the US, obtaining some projects and bursaries.
The main goal of the country has been to adapt to the European Higher Education System. Especially notable has been the effort for having their academic diplomas recognised by other European countries and for developing international programs such as: Tempus, CEEPUS, Socrates/Erasmus, Copernicus, Monet, and eLearn. With the US, Fulbright programs have been developed.
Tempus is a program for cooperation in Higher Education started between EU member states and partner countries. There are four subprograms (Tempus I, Tempus II, Tempus II-bis and Tempus III between 2000 and 2006). Tempus III is actually a pledge for cooperation in higher education which states to deepen the cooperation on higher education, strengthening the whole fabric of relations existing between the peoples of Europe, bringing out common cultural values. The program allows fruitful exchanges of views to take place and facilitates multinational activities in the scientific, cultural, artistic, economic and social spheres.
More specifically, the Tempus program pursues the establishment of consortia. Consortia implements Joint European Projects with a clear set of objectives, financed partially by this program, for the maximum duration of three years. The development is considered in small steps, successful small projects. Tempus also provides Individual Mobility Grants (IMGs) to faculties to help them improve their activities. In addition, non-governmental organisations, business companies, industries and public authorities can receive financial help from Tempus. CEEPUS, Central European Exchange Program for University Studies, was founded in 1994 by countries from the EU and EU candidates. The program provides grants for students, graduates and university teachers participating in intensive courses, networking, and excursions. Project eLearn is being developed by European countries to accelerate and share their strategies in e-learning. Monet is a project which aims to facilitate the introduction of European integration studies in universities. The term "European integration studies" is taken to mean the construction of the European Community and its related institutional, legal, political, economic and social developments. The project targets disciplines in which community developments are an increasingly important part of the subject studied, i.e.,
Community Law
European Economic Integration
European Political Integration
History of the European Construction Process
The Erasmus Mundus program is a cooperation program intended to support high-quality European master courses. These courses are purposed to engage postgraduate studies at European universities. It targets another characteristic, educational mobility, through projects that try to establish consortia for integrated courses of at least three universities in at least three different European countries which lead to a double, multiple or joint recognised diploma.
International validation of studies and degrees
In the Netherlands
The Netherlands has accepted starting with May 1, 2008 the articles II.2, IX.2 and XI.5 of the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region. Usually, Romanian university diplomas (more precisely, licenses got after four/five years of university study, before the application of the Bologna process), are granted in the Netherlands either the title baccalaureus (bc.) or ingenieur (ing.), which are specific to Dutch higher professional education (called HBO). But there are instances wherein titles like meester (mr.) and doctorandus (drs.), specific for the Dutch research universities (called WO), have been granted based upon Romanian license diplomas (four/five years as nominal study length). In this respect it is a prejudice that one had to do a Romanian university depth study in order to get Dutch titles like drs. and mr. In the post-Bologna Dutch educational system, the title mr. has been replaced by and it is equal in value with the degree LLM, and the title drs. has been replaced by and it is equal in value with the degrees MA or MSc. According to the Dutch law (WHW art. 7.23, paragraph 3), Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs, a service of the Dutch Department of Education, service which was formerly called Informatie Beheer Groep, gives the permission to bear a recognized Dutch title to holders of foreign diplomas who graduated from recognized educational institutions, with the condition that a similar faculty and curriculum exists in the Netherlands and that there are no substantial differences between the two educational paths (referring both to the higher education and to the education which usually precedes it in the country of origin).
FEANI
The European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI) grants the title European Engineer (Eur. Ing.) through its Romanian member (General Association of the Engineers in Romania, AGIR) to AGIR members who graduated a faculty recognized by FEANI and had at least two years of engineering activity.
Social involvement
After 1990, universities were the first kind of institution to start the reforms for democratization of education. They achieved autonomy, an impossible goal during the socialist regime. Students had been a very active social category participating in the social protests in the years 1956, 1968, 1987, and 1989. After 1990, they formed a very radical offensive campaign aimed against communist politicians. The University Square movement began when, around the University of Bucharest, these students proclaimed a 'communist free zone', installed tents around the area and protested for over 40 days demanding that communist statesmen be dismissed from public functions. Additionally, they demanded the autonomy of mass-media.
However, Romanian students' movements were a model for other neighboring countries. For instance, Bulgarian students made an alliance with union syndicates and protested through marathon demonstrations and strikes. The difference in that case was that their union syndicates were strong allies of students. Also, their movement was less radical but more powerful and realistic. In this case, they succeeded to dismiss some communist leaders. In Ukraine, the social movements from the end of 2004 against electoral frauds had the same structure.