The Committee for Unity and Wellbeing (CUB), which consists of Moldovan personalities, calls on the authorities to stop the plans to reorganize the university system and to immediately initiate a series of broad public consultations, expressing its interest in cooperating in this regard, IPN reports.
“We are for a reform of the university and research system, but this should be done prudently and wisely, without hidden agendas. Regrettably, the Ministry of Education’s recent announcement of the reorganization by merger of a number of educational, research and innovation institutions (N.462/MEC/2022) amounts to the mechanic reduction of the number of universities, not to high-quality transformation of the university system,” says a statement issued by CUB.
The signatories regret that the announcement was communicated in a very abrupt, ultimatum-like and unprofessional way, in the absence of preliminary consultations with the academia and civil society. They invoke the violation of the legislation in the case of at least two institutions – the Agrarian University and the University of Tiraspol – as these are to be reorganized without the Ministry of Education having the necessary power.
Also, the signatories say the Ministry of Education didn’t offer sufficient details about the investments that will be made as a result of this reorganization, didn’t publish the required impact studies and didn’t indicate the source of the planned investments. They accuse the authorities of the intention to concentrate and centralize control over properties that are now owned by the universities that are to be liquidated and criticize the way in which the research institutes are planned to be reorganized.
When it was issued, the statement had on it the signatories of 22 personalities – doctors of science, doctors, musicians and others. The list is topped by the mayor of Strășeni town Valentina Casian, former Ambassador to Lithuania Igor Klipii, former Ambassador to the U.S. Igor Munteanu, ex-Ambassador to Russia Anatol Țăranu and economist Veaceslav Ioniță.
