As a result of the higher education reform, the number of Moldovan universities has been reduced from 16 to 11. The Ministry of Education and Research said the reform was a response to the continuous decrease in the number of students and promised that, with this reconcentration of resources, more money would be spent on modernizing the institutions, while the students and the academic personnel would have better conditions, Radio Europa Liberă reported.
As of January 1, the Agrarian University and the State University of Tiraspol officially no longer exist. They legally became part of the Technical University and the “Ion Creangă” University, respectively.
The rector of the Technical University, Viorel Bostan, says that the real number of students at the Agricultural University is 1,569, and not 3,000, as the former administration claimed. Half of them, or almost 800, are now studying part-time. “The so-called reduced attendance education is perceived as being rather perfunctory and we got signals that the quality of such training is indeed very poor. Also, we found inflated staff numbers, people who were not in their positions, that is, they were employed but did not come to work”, Viorel Bostan told Radio Europa Liberă. The rector says that he has turned to law enforcement to investigate these cases.
Viorel Bostan also says that all the properties of the Agrarian University now belong to the UTM and are in a deplorable state. The UTM administration intends to thermally insulate all the blocks inherited from the Agrarian University, change the windows, the heating system and repair the roofing.
Also as of January 1, the State University of Moldova officially has under its authority the Academy of Public Administration and 13 institutes of the Academy of Sciences. “According to the Government decision, the transfer of the institutions has been completed. The process went well, with understanding. We are operating under normal conditions, we had an admission this year. The professors were assigned to the University’s departments”, USM rector Igor Sharov told Radio Europa Liberă. The rector believes that the merging process should proceed naturally and with great care towards the additional assets received. “We at the university have not had any cases of dissatisfaction, but they can always appear”, said Igor Sharov.
The “Ion Creangă” Pedagogical University absorbed the State University of Tiraspol (based in Chisinau), the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Institute of Continuing Education. The “Ion Creangă” rector, Alexandra Barbăneagra, said that after the spirits calmed down, the reform of university institutions began to bear fruit. “It was a good idea, because expenses were optimized according to the number of students. And we and the University of Tiraspol had similar programs, the number of students was decreasing, because of the demographic situation that we all know. The departments have been combined, the possibilities have increased and these things will be seen in time”, said the rector.
