Education Minister Proposes Changes To PhD Grad School Reviewing, Rectors’ Council Opposes

According to the project, ARACIS would only review PhD grad schools based on a self-assessment report made by the institutions themselves, and does not specify whether the watchdog will be able to make independent checks on its own initiative.

Currently, ARACIS reviews the said schools through a commission of experts, which analyzes the reports and also verifies independently to see if the quality standards are met. Each institution is subjected to reviews every five years to maintain accreditation.

The ministry’s project also does not specify a procedure for withdrawing accreditation, or guidelines for how to deal with situations in which PhD theses are found to be plagiarized or an institution does not respect quality standards.

National Rectors’ Council Chairman Sorin Cimpeanu told MEDIAFAX on Friday that the institutions urges to ministry to maintain the review process based on the methodology currently in use.