Dynamics of Qualifications in Romanian Higher Education, 1968-2010

Introduction. The communist take-over had significant consequences on the Romanian public education. Because of the tight political control on education, higher education followed closely the evolution pattern of the general political system of communist Romania: Soviet-inspired restructuration from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, development and expansion based on a relative opening and partial retrieval of pre-communist national traditions during the 1960s and part of the 1970s, and a relative closing of the system in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, closely connected with the economic constraints and the hardening of national-communist policies.

Aim of the study. The study analyzes the evolution of study programs in the Romanian higher education in two very different institutional settings: during the communist regime, when the state controlled centrally the structure and contents of higher education, and during the post-communist liberalization and expansion of the number of institutions, students and study programs. The analysis investigates the legal foundations of establishing new qualifications, as well as the number and share of the various types of study programs. It allows to identify different phases during the two main historical periods. For example, during the last two decades of the communist rule, the number of study programs and qualifications increased significantly during the 1960s and most of the 1970s, and then contracted the late 1970s to 1989. After the demise of communism, there was a massive expansion in the number of qualifications and study programs, especially in the context of establishing new institutions of higher education and liberalizing to a certain extent the procedures for proposing and implementing new study programs. This expansion was reversed after 2001, and the number of study programs fluctuated considerably up to the enforcement of the National Education Law 1/2011.

Keywords: qualification; higher education; Romania; communism; post-communism; Bologna process.