University graduates in Romania make up 15.1% of the country’s population aged between 15-64, according to the Social Monitor of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania Foundation. This is below the EU average of 27.2% and lest than half compared to the highest ranked country Sweden, where the same ratio reaches 35.3%.

Graduates aged 30 to 40 years old represent 25.6% of the active population in this age group, below neighboring Bulgaria’s 33.8% and the EU average of 39.1%. Moreover, in 2016, Romania granted 10 graduate studies diplomas for every 1000 people aged 15 to 64, half of Poland’s 20 per 1000 and again below the EU average of 14 per 1000.

“It is possible that the indicators regarding higher education are affected by the brain drain phenomenon. But this cannot constitute the main explanation as Romania grants yearly only 10 higher education diplomas for every 1000 people aged between 15 and 64, half of Poland’s number and below the EU average. This means that the “diploma factories” [e.n. higher education institutions that churn a high number of graduates at the expense of the quality of the education] have a low yield,” shows the Social Monitor, quoted by Mediafax.

Romania’s spending on education stood at 2.7% of the GDP in 2013, down from 4.25% in 2007. By contrast, the EU average was of 5% of the GDP in 2013.

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editor@romania-insider.com