Radio România Internațional

Tag: new academic year

  • October 3, 2022 UPDATE

    October 3, 2022 UPDATE

    WAR IN UKRAINE – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, as
    well as the presidents of seven other members of NATO from Central and Eastern
    Europe, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro,
    Poland and Slovakia on Monday signed a
    joint statement reaffirming their support for the sovereignty and territorial
    integrity of Ukraine. We firmly stand behind the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit
    decision concerning Ukraine’s future membership, the Romanian president also
    tweeted.


    EDUCATION – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, on
    Monday said the education laws should stipulate clear provisions for the
    prevention and punishment of plagiarism, which he described as a toxic
    phenomenon in the education system. Attending the opening of the academic year
    at the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest, the
    president pointed out that obtaining an academic degree is an honor
    exclusively based on real merit. An educated Romania must be fair, without
    exception, Klaus Iohannis said. Some 500 thousand students on Monday started a
    new academic year. Also on Monday, Ligia Deca was sworn in as the new Education
    Minister, replacing outgoing minister Sorin Cîmpeanu, who resigned in the wake of a plagiarism scandal. Ligia Deca was
    nominated by the National Liberal Party after previously serving as
    presidential adviser. Deca was in charge of coordinating Educated Romania, a project
    that will be treated as a top priority during her mandate.


    CAR INDUSTRY – Although the world car industry was
    strongly hit by the global semiconductor chip shortage, with losses to
    companies in the field amounting to 100 billion EUR, the car manufacturing
    industry in Romania saw a growth rate of over 15%, while car sales grew by 5%
    in the first 8 months of the year compared with the same period in 2021,
    according to a study published on Monday. With chip supply chains still at
    threat, state support should remain high for this sector, which makes up more
    than 25% of GDP, the study also writes. Romania is home to two big car
    manufacturing plants: the Ford factory in Craiova, in the south-west, and the
    Dacia-Renault factory in Mioveni, in the south of the country.


    ENERGY – The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest is
    expected to finalize this week debates on the government emergency decree in the
    field of energy. The draft law was previously adopted by the Senate with
    certain amendments. Therefore, in the current form, the list of social
    categories that benefit from capped prices for electricity and natural gas
    until August, 2023 includes families with a maximum of three children, places
    of worship officially sanctioned in Romania and medicine manufacturers. The list
    of legal entities that benefit from capped prices also includes SMEs, public
    utility services and economic operators in the food industry. On the other
    hand, this week Romanian MPs are expected to cast their votes on the final law in
    the justice law package, more specifically the one regulating the status of
    magistrates. USR in opposition has called on the ruling coalition to suspend
    the debate of these draft laws until December pending the publication of the opinion
    of the Venice Commission, according to a timetable published on Monday.


    GAS – Romania has reached 87% natural gas storage capacity,
    Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă said on Monday. The
    Romanian Prime Minister said Romania will be able to provide assistance to the
    Republic of Moldova in case the Russian energy giant Gazprom suspends gas
    deliveries to this country. Romania will be able to deliver as much as 5
    million cubic meters per day, the Romanian official added.


    NOBEL – Swedish paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo on Monday was
    awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022. The 67-year-old
    researcher was rewarded for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct
    hominins and human evolution. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
    Medicine was scooped by Americans Ardem Pataputian and David Julius for their
    discoveries of thermal and mechanical transducers. The Nobel Prizes in Physics
    and Chemistry will be announced on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, while
    the recipients of the Nobel Prizes in Literature and Peace will be made public
    on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The final prize in economy will be
    announced next week. Each Nobel Prize is accompanied by a 10-million Swedish
    Krona (the equivalent of some 920 thousand EUR). (VP)

  • September 27, 2021

    September 27, 2021

    COVID-19 – Over 6,000 new cases of COVID infection and 111
    related fatalities were reported on Sunday in Romania. Over 1,200 people are
    currently in intensive care. In Bucharest, the incidence rate has exceeded 4
    per thousand inhabitants, which entails additional restrictions, including the
    mandatory wearing of face masks in public areas. A weekend quarantine has been
    declared in a number of towns and villages where the incidence rate exceeded 6
    per thousand. The COVID vaccination certificate is now mandatory in a number of
    cities in the country for certain types of activities, which has slightly
    boosted the vaccination campaign.


    VISIT – European
    Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is later today expected to arrive in Bucharest in order to officially present Brussels’ assessment on Romania’s
    National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Romania is due to receive close
    to 30 billion Euro worth of development funds. PNRR is to be signed today by
    president von der Leyen, who is also expected to meet president Klaus Iohannis
    and Prime Minister Florin
    Cîţu. Also attending will be Cristian Ghinea, the former Minister for European
    Funds and Projects, who coordinated the negotiations and the elaboration of
    Romania’s plan. PNRR also stipulates that all funds received must be spent by
    2026 on reforms and investments in the fields of green and digital transitions,
    smart economic growth, social cohesion, healthcare and education.






    ACADEMIC YEAR – A number of university centers are today hosting
    opening ceremonies for the new academic year, with the strict observance of
    health safety restrictions. Most higher education institutions have opted to
    hold classes in hybrid format, both online and with physical attendance. Things
    will change depending on the epidemiological context, and universities have a
    number of restrictions already in place. Vaccinated students will be given
    priority for hostel accommodation, while the number of vacancies will be cut
    down. Approximately 78% of teaching staff, some 24,000 people, have completed
    the full vaccine scheme.




    RESIGNATION – Chamber of Deputies Speaker Ludovic Orban today
    announced that his decision to resign is irreversible. Orban said that the new
    president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Florin Cîţu, has 15 days to take note of his resignation,
    after which date he will personally submit it to Parliamnet. In turn, Prime
    Minister Florin Cîţu said that
    his party will discuss in Tuesday’s meeting all the options for the new
    leadership of the Chamber of Deputies.




    ENERGY – The significant increase in
    natural gas and electricity prices, as well as the measures the Government is
    considering to help the population, are today being discussed in Parliament.
    Energy Minister, Virgil Popescu, will appear before the Chamber of Deputies to
    clarify the situation. Talks were postponed last week, when the minister
    couldn’t attend because he presented the draft emergency bill on introducing a
    compensation mechanism to help both natural persons and SMEs pay energy bills.
    Some 13 million Romanians with average income and energy consumption will
    benefit from this bill, which the Government is expected to adopt later this
    week. Households with a monthly energy consumption between 30 and 200 Kw will
    be eligible. The Government wants a simple and quick mechanism that should
    involve consumers as least as possible.


    ELECTION IN GERMANY – Official preliminary results of Sunday’s
    election show that the Social-Democrats (SPD) are in lead with 25.7% of the
    vote, followed by the conservative camp, CDU/CSU, with a historic low of merely
    24.1%. The Greens are in third place with 15%, followed by the
    Liberal-Democrats with 11.5%. SPD leader, Olaf Scholz, has already claimed
    victory based on preliminary results. We are doing everything in our power to
    get the new coalition up and running by Christmas, if not earlier, says Scholz,
    the deputy chancellor and finance minister of Angela Merkel’s Cabinet. The
    economic sector has also demanded the swift installation of the new Government.




    ROMANIA-GERMANY RELATIONS – Relations between Romania and Germany
    will remain excellent after the election as well, Germany’s ambassador to
    Romania, Peer Gebauer has told Radio Romania on Sunday evening, as the exit
    poll results were made public. Irrespective of the color of the new Cabinet and
    who the future chancellor will be, Romania and Germany are bound by a solid
    friendship, the German ambassador said.




    ENESCU FESTIVAL – The 25th
    edition of the George Enescu International Music Festival has come to a
    close. Yesterday, the Concertgebouw Royal Orchestra of Amsterdam, conducted by
    Daniel Harding of Great Britain, gave the last concert in the Great World
    Orchestras series. The 2021 edition of the festival brought together over 3,500
    Romanian and foreign artists and 32 of the world’s top orchestras from 14
    countries. (VP)

  • The new academic year

    The new academic year

    October 1st, the day of the year when classes start in universities, is a time for novelty and a time for tallying up the past, especially since the University of Bucharest celebrates 150 years of existence. After 1989, higher education has also been provided by private institutions, in addition to the numerous state schools in the country. We spoke about higher education in Romania with Marian Staş, who teaches both at Harvard University and the University of Bucharest. We asked him if the level of quality in private and state-run universities is the same:



    “The short answer is ‘no’, for at least two significant reasons. The University of Bucharest was founded 150 years ago, while private universities in Romania were only created 15 or 20 years ago. Secondly, there is a fear among the public that private schools are diploma-making factories, rather than schools where students learn. Also, there are reports that some students from private universities can actually pay to pass their exams and get their diplomas. On the other hand, this also happens in state universities. There are, however, good teachers and students in private schools, as well. If we look at figures, private education accounts for 3 to 5% of the entire education system in Romania, which is very low.”



    As for the novelties introduced this year, the government issued an emergency executive order operating changes in the Law of Education. For example, if so far doctoral programmes implied full-time attendance, from now on they only require part-time attendance. Another change refers to the creation of tertiary colleges in universities. These provide courses for high school graduates who have failed their baccalaureate exams. This also allowing those who are university material to train for some other type of post-high school education. In recent year, only 40 to 50% of high school students passed their baccalaureate exam, which is a condition for going to university. Marian Stas explains:



    “When in 2011 less than 50% of high school students passed the baccalaureate, that drastically reduced the pool of potential university students. Along the years, universities have prepared to take in more and more students, and suddenly there were too few. Another problem for universities is the quality of high school education. Young people who finish high school and pass the baccalaureate exam not always have the level of training required by universities.”



    We asked Marian Stas if, in his opinion, these post-high school colleges will address the problem:



    “It is definitely not a bad idea to have university teachers train these children. While it’s a good thing to have people who are willing to do this, this is not the purpose of a university. Universities should be focused on abstraction and intellectual constructs, not teaching practical skills, which should be taught by post-high school education. I’m curious to see the first generation of young people trained by these tertiary colleges and how they will cope with being at university. I am sounding the alarm here, because the framework methodology is insufficiently detailed and leaves room for arbitrary interpretation. Thus, young people who are not sufficiently trained may be facilitated access to universities.”



    Young people wishing to enlist for these colleges may do so as of this year, as the government has asked universities to put together lists of degrees and curricula by October 20th. So far, several state and private universities have announced their availability for setting up such colleges. However, you will not find among them the most prestigious schools, such as the University of Bucharest, the University of Cluj, the University of Iasi and the Bucharest Technical University.