Four universities could remain without accreditation for Law program
The Ministry of Education will suggest that the Government should not accredit the higher bachelor and master degrees Law programs of four universities of the 17 that have such programs (ten state-run and seven private universities). Such a decision was taken following irregularities identified by experts of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education that was selected at a contest to assess the master degree Law programs, IPN reports.
The following universities can remain without accreditation for the Law programs: the Slavonic University, the Institute of Penal Sciences and Criminology, the University “Perspectiva-INT”, and the Balti Nistrean Institute of Economy and Law.
“Of the total institutions assessed, the efficiency of the education process at the four universities was lower than the minimum level of 30 points needed for accreditation. Thus, the four institutions will lose the right to offer programs of bachelor studies in Law. As the Education Code provides that an institution cannot provide master programs if it is not accredited for bachelor programs, these universities will be unable to offer such programs,” Minister of Education Maia Sandu told a news conference.
According to the assessment report, over 50% of the assessed programs lacked the means needed for achieving the education objectives, including scientific resources (courses, monographs, treaties, etc.) or human resources. It was also established that the programs of studies and education plans at half of the examined institutions meet the framework plan approved by the Ministry of Education only partially.
The four universities will preserve the accreditation for other programs of studies and will be able to get a provisional authorization for the Law programs if they remove all the identified shortcomings. Until then, about 1,400 young people studying for their bachelor and master degrees in Law at the four universities will study at other universities with similar programs.
The assessment of the 17 universities cost 800,000 lei.
