With changing demographics, a lot of Universities are facing falling numbers. And private organizations are partnering with universities. When it becomes about the money, sometimes even an educational institution will prioritise quantity over quality.
Romania is on both sides of this equation. While Cluj attracts a lot of foreign students, it also sends many of its own students abroad. If you speak English in Cluj, your children will likely study in an English speaking university. But, you probably also are not a native speaker, so they will be “strangers in two lands.” Are students going to countries like Britain because of the quality, or simply attracted by false promises that the English speaking world has something special?
Well, Britain signed an agreement that Canada refused to sign. Canada has become infamous for luring foreign students, especially those from India, to second rate universities (some would even say fake universities) with false promises.
A year ago, the Indian media seemed to wise up to the fact that Canadian universities were not up to scratch, and that the cost of sending students there may not be worth it.
But has anything been done about the countries that did sign the convention? I mean, Britain, America, and Australia have a lot of universities per capita, and it seems pretty easy to found a new one in those countries. (It is easier to start a new university in Canada than it is to open a bank account in Romania, but even Britain has more universities than its population could ever need.)
Now the question for students going to Romania is, will the same thing happen here? Perhaps not. It is much easier to immigrate to Romania without using the student excuse. And Romania’s bigger problems seem to be student drop outs. About half of university students leave their courses, and
Why is this? Is it linked to the cost of living? Do students spend too much time working second jobs to support themself, and have little time for study? Or do they lack motivation to finish their degrees, especially after hearing university is useless stories from gurus like the (college graduate) writer of “Rich Dad Poor Dad?”
Robert Kiyosaki is probably one of the worst influences on Romania today. His bad advice books often top the charts under “financial literacy.”
We need to take another approach. We need to recognise that some universities are complete scams, especially in countries like Canada that see students as a cash cow to help their economy. Even within good universities, there are often bad apples with departments that don’t teach what they claim to teach. Like junk food, there are also junk degrees. Some degrees have as much educational content as coca cola has vitamins.
But we can also recognize that the right kind of education can help students. Like good food, there are good degrees.
All European and North American universities could benefit with better standards. More inspections should close down bad colleges that fail to teach or motivate their students the way inspections close down fast food joints that do not follow sanitation regulations.
I’ve spoken to international students and instructors. While almost all of them can remember some form of inspection at international secondary schools, none can remember external inspectors at universities. (There were external examiners who looked at marks students had for assignments, but no one seemed to inspect the safety or suitability of the buildings, the teaching process, or the resources available to students.)
In secondary schools in Romania, we can also expect more teacher strikes. Funding for schools can have a knock on effect with how students perform in university (if they make it that far).
Romania seems unique in that it is facing the challenges of Canada as well as those of India. It has trouble retaining its youth, while at the same time it can feel like there are few opportunities at home when cheap foreigners compete for the same jobs. And when Romanians do go abroad, many feel underemployed and discriminated against. Universities in the West do not always provide students with degrees that are respected in the Western job market. But even when they do, some nationalities may seem more likely to get the good jobs than others.
Does this have an impact on the relationship between Romanians and expats? Perhaps a future episode of Living Ironically in Europe will provide us with an entertaining attempt at an answer.
Just as different ethnic groups in Romania have different reputations, so do different countries. Students do not seem to be at the center of these stereotypes, but they might be affected by them.
But back to the quality of universities. I am more likely to look favorably on a degree from a Romanian university than one from a Canadian one. When foreign students account for more than half your students, your university is probably junk.