Five Moldovan universities have been accredited to European standards, enabling the recognition and compatibility of their diplomas in the European Union. The accreditation was carried out by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS), being preceded by a self-evaluation and evaluation of the institutions.

According to the Ministry of Education, the accreditation has been granted for a period of five years to the State University of Moldova, the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, the State University Alecu Russo from Balti, the State University Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu from Cahul, and the Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts.

Preparations for the accreditation process took more than two years and were part of the ERASMUS+ project, QFORTE, co-financed by the European Commission. To obtain accreditation, the higher education institutions developed strategies for quality assurance, and consolidated their quality departments. At the same time, ARACIS organized training for teaching staff from the institutional quality assurance departments to support them in the preparation of self-evaluation processes.

“The international accreditation of our universities is another step forward towards internationalizing our academic programs and attracting more foreign students. Universities must be more attractive internationally, they have more resources to invest in better conditions and offer a better quality of studies”, declared Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun.

In 2019, the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy obtained international accreditation from the Astana-based Independent Agency for Accreditation and Rating (IAAR).