Higher Education in Romania in the Context of Europe 2020

Abstract

This paper offers a general view, supported by a critical analysis (factual and causal), of the effects noted in the field of higher education in Romania, in relation with the Europe 2020 Strategy. A short introductory paragraph is devoted to the initial conditions for the analysis, presenting a synopsis of the essence of the situation of higher education in Romania. Then, a first analysis perspective is tertiary education graduates' emigration. The absence of statistical data, according to age groups, made it necessary for us to use indirect assessment methods; the article includes an original assessment procedure in this respect. The second analysis perspective is employment reflecting acquired competences. The absence of statistical data required for a detailed analysis is compensated for by the use of general statistics on the labour force. A third perspective is an internationalization; the article also includes an exhaustive analysis (in relation to EU statistics) of higher education systems of EU member states, based on UNESCO statistics. The main conclusion of the article is that the indicator ”Weight of the tertiary educated population in the 30-34 age group” would have attained in 2014 the level of 40%, set as an average target for EU member states for the year 2020, if Romania had not been confronted with the highly qualified young labour force emigration.