The university reform, which involves a series of mergers and liquidations and which government representatives themselves describe as “painful yet necessary”, has come under serious criticism.

According to the recently announced plans of the Ministry of Education, the Moldova State University will absorb the Academy of Public Administration, the University of Sports and Physical Education, and most state-run research institutions as well. Meanwhile, the Agrarian University will merge by absorption with the Technical University, as the Universities of Tiraspol and of Taraclia will be absorbed by the Pedagogical University in Chisinau.

“The Tiraspol State University is the oldest higher education institution in the Republic of Moldova. It has been a pillar of integrity and stability on the left bank of the Nistru. The university has an enormous heritage and it must have continuity. The government cannot just take away everything that a collective has built, because tens, hundreds of people have contributed to this heritage. There is university autonomy. With this argument, we resisted in Tiraspol against the separatists, we told them that we are autonomous, and if they want their share of places, they should pay and we will train specialists for them. There are 3,000 students and that’s not a negligible number”, said Ștefan Urâtu, president of the Tiraspol University Salvation Committee, during a talk show on TV8.

The reform is also intensely criticized by the former education minister in the Chicu Government. According to Corneliu Popovici, the decision of the PAS government will “completely ruin” research in Moldova.

“We are witnessing an attempt to liquidate five universities and 18 scientific research institutes, which were once part of the Academy of Sciences. As a result of this foolish and nonsensical initiative, the situation in the academic and research community has become strained. The Academy of Sciences, at the General Assembly, all the academicians expressed their absolute criticism of this initiative. All the directors of the research institutes said that it was a foolish idea. The vice president of the Romanian Academy also told them that they what they are doing is utter madness”, said the ex-minister of education Corneliu Popovici.

However, the government has some statistics to back up its decision. It shows that in the last decade the number of students has decreased from 100 to 59.7 thousand.

“We have been sounding the alarm for quite a while now that universities as academic structures are disappearing, because there are fewer and fewer students. Each student will continue his or her studies, the lecturers won’t lose their jobs, because we are talking about a pedagogical specialty here. All we are doing is saving resources for these universities. We still keep the regional universities in Bălți and Cahul. It is not the stamp that matters, but the professor and the student”, said the PAS lawmaker Virgiliu Pâslariuc.

The reorganization process is supposed to take place in the period between graduation and the upcoming academic year.