Beginning of the academic year - they solved everything, nothing could be done

National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania (ANOSR) criticizes the fact that the academic year 2021-2022 begins under the sign of the same acute problems of students, which can not be ignored no matter how glorious the opening festivities of the academic year.

For first year students, 12.2% of the faculties of Romanian universities that have published to date the operating scenario for the beginning of the academic year 2021-2022 will begin in full online, while 52,2% will work hybrid (courses - online, seminars and labs - physical) and 35,59% integral physical. At the same time, it is important to note that it will be a losing strategy if it is considered that initiation into the university environment can be achieved for these students without adapting to the context they had in high school conducted at least partially online and without diagnostic assessments and remedies.

For the other students, 12.2% between universities will start in the scenario online, 52,88% in the script hybrid and 34,92% integral physical.

Promised immunization centers and facilities for vaccinated students have remained so far, with notable exceptions at some universities, simple ads which reinforce the causes of the lack of mobilization for vaccination. Even with vigorous measures and strict observance of sanitary norms, the universities of the big university centers will be able to be put in front of the significant risk of reintroducing full online script in a few weeks from the beginning of the academic year, after the students have settled in dormitories or rents.

Although the pandemic could be the context in which student dormitories, recognized for unsanitary conditions, could be renovated, the students will return to the same conditions, but with fewer seats in several universities due to health restrictions. As if that wasn't enough, Rising energy and gas prices could be a blow to students, if the Romanian Government and the universities do not find it an emergency solution to mitigate these increases through subsidies specific for dormitory students and tenants.

Pending the amounts received through PNRR or operational programs that are not yet finalized, there is no government investment in digitization universities, in infrastructure or in teacher training. However, there is a risk that most students will end up learning again in the online operating scenario.

Although the trend of European states was to focus, in this critical period for students, on the social dimension of education, compared to last year, students will start the academic year 2021-2022 without the right to free rail transport, without minimal updates of the amount of student scholarships or scholarships for Romanian ethnics everywhere (despite the increase in living costs), without national strategies for inclusion or university dropout, as Romania has assumed at the international level.

Instead, it was regulated anti-plagiarism verification of doctoral theses from 1990-2016. Although the measure is positive, being requested by ANOSR since 2015, in the absence of clear methodological rules and rules of procedure established at national level, this process or it will not be possible to perform optimally, either it will be a simple image exercise.

Mental discomfort and worries about the professional future have marked the lives of students in the pandemic. However, the decision of the state is to maintain almost 30 lei / student / year for psychological counseling and career counseling activities, the institutional development fund being the only one that offers direct financing facilities from the state budget.

Of course, if the constraint was exclusively budgetary, by now students should already have 25% in all university structures, including the election of the rector. Regardless of whether or not the Government assumes the governing program, we expect it to quickly initiate steps to regulate this right.

The promises were, instead, for students on the agenda - national strategies (the one for the period 2015-2020 is below 20% implemented), Governance Programs that have been forgotten faster than published in the Official Gazette, or, more recently, the expectation of concrete actions in "Educated Romania".

retrieve here statistics regarding the scenario of the beginning of the academic year in the state universities in Romania.

"The beginning of a university year should be not only a time of festivities, but also of reflection on the conditions of student life. From this point of view, however, there are fewer things that can be considered glorious. If we want to have high-quality, high-quality education that young people want to access, it is far from enough to say just that. Next is a year of major challenges - whether we are talking about the financial situation of students or the actual implementation of a roadmap to modernize the higher education system, a lesson that the pandemic could not convey more clearly. The students do not want to be left with promises and a screen behind which we hide the real problems " - said Horia-Șerban Onița, president of ANOSR.