Romania has ranked last in the European Union in its higher education completion rate.
19% of Romanians have completed their higher education studies, while the European average is 35%, a study from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania finds.
Experts say that this tertiary education rate is essential to determining the level of economic investment and development over the medium and long term, points out Romania Insider.
This has been the situation in Romania for a long time.
The reasons, however, are not so obvious.
Higher education is free and accessible in Romania. Therefore, it’s not that Romanians aren’t taking advantage of their higher education program, but rather that those with higher education tend to emigrate – while those without higher education tend to stay behind.
Italy, which has an aging population problem like Romania, follows Romania on the EU’s lowest list with a tertiary education rate of 22%.
Other post-communist countries have higher percentages of college graduates: Lithuania (which at 46% actually has the EU’s second-highest higher education rate, after Belgium), Estonia (42%), Poland (38%), and Slovenia (34%).
What’s more, a quarter of Romanian minors dropped out of high school in 2023.
“Starting with the introduction of programs to increase access to higher education, such as ‘First Student’ or ‘Second Chance’, to increasing the scholarship fund, all these measures pursued the same goal: reducing the gap to the EU average by increasing the number of students. Romania needs more higher education graduates, because the sustainable economic development and the society we aspire to can only become a reality through the contribution of as many as possible well-prepared and competitive citizens, who put their creativity to work,” Klaus Iohannis declared on the matter at a conference, also urging academics to step up in being active in their guidance.
VIDEO | Finally. Romanians expected to travel visa-free to the US from mid-2025, ambassador says
