The Education System in Romania

The Ministry of Education and Research regulates the Romanian educational system base don the Law of Education that was adopted in 1995. The adult literacy rate in the country is 97.3% (45th worldwide) as of 2004. There are around 4.4 million students enrolled in 2004, 650,000 in kindergarten, 3.11 million in primary and secondary levels, and 650,000 in tertiary level.

There are 2 main levels in the Romanian educational system, the Pre-University Level and Higher Education. Pre-University Level composes of Kindergarten (3 or 4 grades), Primary (Elementary is grades 1 to 4 while Gymnasium is grades 5 to 8), High School (grades 9 to 12 or 13), and Vocational education. The Higher Education is based on the principles of Bologna process and has 4 sections – Bachelor (3 years in most disciplines), Master (2 years), Doctorate (minimum of 3 years), and Lifelong learning (includes postgraduate education taking place outside the Master/Doctorate structure).

The first modern Romanian universities are the University of Iaşi (1860), University of Bucharest (1864), Babeş-Bolyai University (1872). Universities have full autonomy, from management, admission process, to class organization. As of 2007, Romania has no integrated admission system.