Government funding cuts anger top universities

BIRN 13 April 2018

Romania’s ministry of education has angered academics with a decision to cut funding for the country’s top universities, which have been increasingly critical of government policies in the past year, writes Ana Maria Luca for BIRN.

The ministry published a new decision last week obliging Romania’s 56 state universities to reduce the number of students in the humanities, social sciences and business, and boost the number of students in technical fields, the automotive industry, tourism, IT, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

Minister of National Education Valentin Popa told the media that the decision was taken as part of a governance strategy which was adopted in 2014 and is meant to adapt the education system to Romania’s economic priorities. But academics say that this was a politically motivated move to punish them for criticising the government's education and research policies over the past year.
Full report on the Balkan Insight site

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