Global IssuesEDUCATION: Not This Romanian Way
One of three students in Romania studies at Spiru Haret University, the largest private university in the country. But more than 100,000 students, recent and older graduates, could be left without their diplomas because the authorities dispute the quality of education provided by the institution.
In all 311,928 students are currently pursuing a degree offered by Spiru Haret University, in one of the three forms of study offered: full-time, part-time, and distance learning. The size of the student body is impressive even by European standards: last year all universities in the UK, one of Europe's most active countries in marketing education, produced 335,000 graduates.
Created in 1991 soon after the existence of private educational institutions was provided for in Romanian legislation (after the fall of state socialism in 1989), Spiru Haret got official authorisation to function in 2002. Since then, the student body has grown exponentially. The number of students enrolled this year is three times the number of graduates produced by the institution since it started.
In 2007, Spiru Haret registered a profit of 30 million euros, making it one of the most lucrative businesses nationwide.
The part-time and distance learning tracks are the most popular. The university currently has 49 distance learning and 47 part-time centres around the country. Students pay on average 500 euros a year, and there is usually no limit on the number of students, especially for the distance learning courses.
This year, however, the ministry of education was alarmed by the large number of diplomas granted by the university. 'This year, they have asked for 56,000 diplomas,' minister for education Ecaterina Andronescu said in a statement to the national media Jul. 11. 'This figure scared me.'
The ministry has been entangled in a legal battle with Spiru Haret for over a year. The authorities claim that the many new departments opened by the university since 2002 have not been checked and approved by the ministry of education, and therefore they function illegally.
On the other hand, Spiru Haret argues that since the university was authorised in 2002, that accreditation transfers to all types of courses created since, in light of the autonomy granted to universities to design their own programmes.
The ministry additionally argues that the university has refused check-ups by the National Agency for Ensuring the Quality of Higher Education (ARACIS). Spiru Haret challenges the legitimacy of ARACIS itself.
In a statement posted on the website of the university, the president of the institution, Aurelian Bondrea, argues that Spiru Haret is being evaluated by institutions more credible than the national body: 'Spiru Haret has been accepted and is in the process of being evaluated by the European University Association, made up of reputed experts in the domain of European university education.'
The ministry is not persuaded by the arguments presented by Spiru Haret. Last week, it announced a series of decisions which will impact at least 100,000 current and former students of the institution. Diplomas obtained in the unaccredited part-time and distance learning courses will not be recognised until students holding such diplomas are re-examined by state institutions.
Many graduates trying to enter a national competition for positions in the state education system, on the basis of Spiru Haret degrees, have been turned away from exams this month.
The ministry has called on the university to stop enrolling students this year in its unaccredited courses. The university was registering students early last week. But towards the end of the week, the phone lines of the secretariat handling student inquiries in the city of Brasov (one of the main centres of Spiru Haret) were not functioning.
IPS spoke with two second-year students enrolled part-time at the faculty of psychology in Brasov, identified here only by their initials. Apart from the uncertainty over the utility of their degrees in light of the current controversy, they spoke about the quality of education received at the institution, which seems to be what is really at stake in the struggle between the ministry and Spiru Haret.
'I chose to enrol in a degree because of the pressure around me,' M.G, a 52- year old primary school teacher told IPS. 'All my younger colleagues had such degrees from private universities and I was afraid a time will come when I could lose my job for not having this degree. Plus, a university degree brings a bonus in the salary.
'I was afraid to go through exams at the state universities,' she added, 'because it has been 30 years since I completed high school. I know my job, but I didn't know whether I could compete for admission with people with a fresher education.'
One of the main selling points for the 28 authorised private universities in Romania is admissions without exams, on the basis of baccalaureate (school- leaving exam) grades. In state universities, ten students on average compete for one place through entrance exams.
Because of the many places offered in part-time and distance learning tracks, private universities have encouraged middle-aged people to return to school. With the economy undergoing massive restructuring over the past two decades, many engineers or teachers suddenly found their diplomas useless on the new job market, and felt compelled to seek more marketable qualifications.
But many think the private universities give them only a diploma, not education, in exchange for the fees.
'I was hoping to get something out of the courses,' E.C., a 49-year old social worker also studying psychology at Spiru Haret, told IPS. 'But we go there once a week for two or three hours of class, and most of the time the professors spend all the time giving us answers to the multiple choice questions that will appear in the exam.
'They give the same exams year after year, and the answers to all the questions are circulated on the student forum before the exams,' E.C. said. 'I was surprised to discover that I was scoring much better when I just learnt those answers by heart than when I was genuinely trying to understand the course material.'
'The courses and exams are a joke,' agrees M.G. 'I have seen cases when the secretaries are filling in the multiple choice questions for students who are absent. In the courses, there are times when we cannot hear anything, the rooms are too large, we are too many, and the professor does not use a microphone.'
Minister Andronescu announced last week that Spiru Haret has been taken off the government list of authorised institutions. 'It's something that should have been done a long time ago, and I consider it to be a gesture of respect for the Romanian educational system.'
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service