Several of the largest and oldest public universities in Romania were left without hundreds of places in the bachelor, master and doctoral programs after the new, preliminary planning for the 2018-2019 academic year issued by the Education Minister.

Some of the universities seeing significant cuts in the number of student places are part of the Universitaria consortium. The consortium includes the University of Bucharest, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, the Vest University in Timisoara and the Babeş Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.

Following the cuts, the University of Bucharest is planning to sue the Education Ministry to find out how the new allocation of places was done, according to a statement signed by Mircea Dumitru, the rector of the University of Bucharest, and Marian Preda, the president of the senate of the same university. The institution plans to find out “through what miracle the allocation ‘criteria’ for the student places for the fall of this year penalized the universities part of the [e.n. Universitaria] consortium and rewarded all others.”

For instance, according to the allocation for the upcoming academic year, the University of Bucharest is set to have 355 fewer places for master programs compared to last year, the Babeș-Bolyai University 200 fewer places, the National School of Administrative and Political Studies (SNSPA) 150 fewer places, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 139 fewer places, and the Vest University 32 fewer places, Hotnews.ro reported. On the other hand, the Ștefan cel Mare University in Suceava, whose former rector is the current education minister Valentin Popa, received 55 additional places for master programs, adding up to a total of 595. Twenty-five other universities received additional places for their master programs.

The preliminary allocation of the student places in public universities can be checked here.

In the statement, Dumitru spoke of a “the triumph of mediocrity and of political groups” and argued that the education minister cut “with hatred and revenge” the places at the most prestigious universities in the country, while supplementing the places of the others.

“With hatred and revenge, minister Popa, alongside his party colleagues, Mr. Dragnea [e.n. the head of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the president of the Chamber of Deputies] and Ms. Dăncilă [the prime minister], have cut drastically the admission places at the oldest and most prestigious Romanian universities, the universities of the Universitaria Consortium, and shared them with the generosity of the medieval boyars to the new citadels of the Romanian graduate education,” the statement reads.

The University of Bucharest said there was no rational justification for the cuts, which will translate in losses of RON 3.6 million (EUR 774,194) for the doctoral programs and of RON 5.4 million (EUR 1.16 million) for the master and bachelor programs.

A master program grant amounts to RON 7,400 (EUR 1,591) in the Humanities and Social Sciences programs, professor Bogdan Murgescu explained for Hotnews.ro. A doctoral grant varies between RON 22,000 (EUR 4,731) and RON 30,000 (EUR 6,451). Murgescu also pointed to “the introduction of the arbitrary in allocating the student places in the system. […] We are talking about universities that lose more than 10% of their master places.”

Until recently, Murgescu headed the Education Ministry department tasked with proposing the number of student places in the graduate education system every year. The universities are funded depending on the number of places they receive.

In its turn, the Education Minister reacted to the criticism related to the cuts by explaining 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.

“Following the allocation of 8% of the bachelor places and of 12.5% of the master places to supporting Romania’s priority areas for development, the universities that did not have predominantly such programs suffered a slight diminishing of their allotted places,” the ministry said in a press release.

It also criticized the University of Bucharest by arguing the institution develops programs to ensure teaching norms for its 1,267 full teaching staff rather than by taking into account the demands of the labor market. It also said that the University of Bucharest received for its doctoral programs financing of up to 23% of the institution’s total financing because of the high number of allotted places, when the national average was of 12-13%.

The University of Bucharest, the Vest University and the Babes-Boylai University are among the five in Romania included in the 2018 QS Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings by Subject.

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editor@romania-insider.com