The number of students during the past 12 years has halved, from 128,000 in 2006-2007 to 63,000 in the 2018-2019 academic year, expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ionita says in an analysis to which IPN makes reference.
According to the expert, the reduction is due to two groups of factors. The first group consists of such negative factors as the demographic evolutions, lower birth rate and migration. These led to a 2/3 reduction in the number of students, which is a decline of 42,000-45,000 persons, and to a decrease of over 130,000 in the number of children during the past 10-12 years. Consequently, the lack of children generated a lack of students.
The second group, of positive factors, led to a 1/3 reduction in the number of students, which is a decline of 20,000-23,000 persons. Even if the number of students decreased considerably due to these factors, they are considered positive. These include the improvement of the Baccalaureate examination process and the switchover to the two-level university education system.
According to Veaceslav Ionita, the improvement in the Baccalaureate examination process reduced the number of students in universities by about 5,000. The universities that were in pursuit of contracts eliminated any admission filter and accepted everyone as their students. The admission rate was close to 100%, which is illogical. The Baccalaureate exams became the filer that substituted the lack of selection at universities. Some 80-95% of the students who pass the Baccalaureate exams go to study at a university. So, the Baccalaureate exam became a kind of admission exam at universities.
The expert noted the switchover to the two-level university system solved another problem of higher education, namely the exam pass rate. Wishing not to lose the contracts with students, the universities ensured an exam pass rate of almost 100% even if some of the students could be absent. This turned the higher education into an orchard for growing diplomas. The institution of the two-level system became another filter that helps select the students. Thus, only 30-40% of the students who complete the first cycle of university education decide to continue their studies.
Veaceslav Ionita noted the positive factors created two administrative filters by which up to 23,000 students are excluded. These filters replace the complete lack of selection filters at universities. If these two filters hadn’t existed, we could have said that the university education in Moldova perished.
