Protests in the New University Year
Disgruntled with the austerity measures endorsed by the government, students in Romania kicked off a new university year with protests
Leyla Cheamil, 30.09.2025, 14:00
A new academic year has kicked off in Romania with fresh student protests staged in Bucharest and in almost all major university centers across the country concurrently with inauguration ceremonies.
Students in Romania are criticizing the austerity measures and mainly the latest cuts in the scholarship funds. The National Alliance of Student Organisations has made an appeal to the entire community of students to stage protests at the beginning of a the new academic year in response to the latest fiscal budgetary measures, which the alliance say, negatively impact the quality of the education process limiting the access to it.
In a communiqué the organization has lashed out at the attitude of the government who decided to endorse the measures without consulting those directly interested, like students, teachers and professors but who also ignored all the actions through which the students proved that cutting their transport subsidies are insignificant in the process of reducing the country’s budget deficit.
These measures represent a direct attack of the Romanian government against the basic needs of the students to be able to continue the educational process. The government forgets that the right to education is a right guaranteed by the Romanian Constitution, the National Alliance of Student Organisation went on to say.
According to them, cutting transport subsidies and scholarships produces negative effects from the social point of view, affecting mainly the students in vulnerable social-economic situations. ‘Austerity in education isn’t good for economy because any money spent on education is actually investment. And I am here protesting in solidarity with my colleagues, friends and all the people who need fair access to education so they can afford what seems to have become today, the luxury of having education of studying in schools and universities,’ says one of the students who protested in Bucharest.
In turn the Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, says the year 2025 is ‘probably the most difficult and dangerous year for the country after the 1989 Revolution’ against the background of political, economic and international crises. According to him, a blockage in the country’s education system has been avoided thanks to the fiscal-budgetary measures endorsed by the government. In an activity report in which he responds the students’ criticism concerning the latest scholarship cuts, Daniel David says that resizing scholarships will not irreversibly affect the education system.
He mentioned the system already functioned pretty well, in the past school year without any setbacks, adding that he wants a bigger but better-designed scholarship fund in the future. After the fiscal-budgetary crisis has been overcome, higher sums must be allotted for students and we must also have a reasonable number of scholarships for students who won international competitions in sciences, the Education Minister went on to say.
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