Over 4,700 university places remain vacant

After the first stage of admission, over 4,700 tuition-free places in higher education institutions remain unoccupied, with the least in demand faculties being Education, Music, Engineering, and Agronomy. The preferences top is still being dominated by Law, Economics, Medicine, and since recently Journalism, reports Info-Prim Neo. Minister of Education Maia Sandu told a meeting with university rectors that ther was registered a slight decrease in the demand for higher education places; the total number of applicants was slightly over 20,000, which are 2,000 fewer than in the previous years. “From this information we conclude that we are still facing the issue of insufficient interest towards certain specialties that we consider very important for our country: engineers, biologists, and teachers. The explanation must be sought within the labor market, as well as in the educational sphere”, mentioned the Minister. According to her, for the 2nd master’s cycle, the first stage registered an increase in demand. “This is the result of an increase in tuition-free places, but there are also potential causes we must analyze, such as the increase of interest towards master’s degrees, for example”, stated the Minister of Education. In the context, Premier Vlad Filat stated that an evaluation will be made, not only of the number of students, but also of the studies’ results. “We must see where these students find themselves later on, after having spent a while in studying at higher education institutions. And I believe we need an evaluation of the majors which experience deficits, which are demanded by the economy, but the demand of which we cannot satiate. Afterwards, we will develop future actions”, said the Premier. During the meeting, president of Moldovan Rectors’ Council Ion Bostan stated that the elaboration of enrollment Plans is flawed, since it is done without taking into account the real situation. All in all, the universities have offered 20,665 places.