The Romanian higher education needs an evaluation based on international standards, Education Minister Daniel Funeriu declared yesterday, at the first international meeting of the Approval Committee of the strategic projects for reform in the Romanian higher education system.

The Education Minister also stressed the importance of using the criterion of final results in the university evaluation process, and said he will support the idea of financing the education institutions based on scientific results.

“We must move even faster than until now. We could show more courage,” Funeriu pointed out.

On the same occasion, the minister said that universities need better equipment, but they also need “very good people.” As long as we do not change the way universities are organized and operate, we cannot move to modernization,” Minister Funeriu warned. The president of the National Council of Rectors, Ecaterina Andronescu explained Romania went through a very dynamic period during the last 20 years, with respect to the higher education field, which gained “an important mass character” by the increase in the number of students from 125,000 in 1989 to over 700,000 now. “The Romanian higher education is getting modern. The mission and role of universities is changing today. Now, we can speak about the internationalization of Romanian education,” Andronescu mentioned.

In his turn, the president of the Romanian Academy, Ionel Haiduc said the institution has a permanent cooperation with the Education Ministry and many of its members try to contribute to increasing the quality of education.

The meeting belongs to an agenda of events provided within a complex project of university education, staged by UEFISCSU - the Executive Union for the Financing of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Universities, with financing from the European Social Fund. The fund’s agenda features topics like quality and leadership in the higher education, improving the management in universities, evaluating the research done in Romanian universities, and the relation between research institutes and universities.