PhD Regulations

The draft law, which brings changes to the existing laws on PhD titles is now under public debate.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 15.02.2016, 14:15

The long entrenched debate on PhDs has been rekindled these days by the new education minister, Adrian Curaj. Willing to step on firm soil and to put an end to the successive quakes registered during his predecessors’ terms in office, minister Curaj is firmly and unequivocally calling for amending the legislation on PhDs.

All envisaged changes have been collected in a draft law, currently under public debate, which is meant to strengthen the autonomy of universities and implicitly to render more transparent the process of getting a PhD title.

Adrian Curaj: “We have taken into consideration and intend to amend five of over 300 articles in the Education Law. The changing we are operating is made exclusively on those articles related to PhDs and ethics. What we’ve managed to achieve is to approach systemically a system issue”

Minister Curaj has reiterated that granting and withdrawing PhD titles are, from now on, the exclusive responsibility of the organizing institutions, namely universities and the Romanian Academy, whereas the National Council for Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates will act as appeal body. Furthermore, all orders granting a PhD title will be posted on the site of the Education Ministry. All this set of proposals is to be enforced as of mid March.

Updating the laws on PhDs is vital, because, in its current form, it is incoherent and chaotic, minister Curaj explained his approach. He didn’t hesitate to harshly criticise the interference of the political class in the Romanian education system and its impact on the path followed by education after the Romanian Revolution, failing to create a robust framework of development and to offer it a much needed autonomy.

And reproaches continued. The minister also brought into the focus of attention what he called double standards, which politicians enjoyed while writing their PhD papers and after getting the PhD title. Furthermore, minister Curaj said the criteria based on which the titles were granted were not strictly applied. Most likely then not, the best-known case is that of the former Social Democratic Prime Minister Victor Ponta. In 2012, suspicions of plagiarism regarding his PhD paper were confirmed by the National Council for Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates, according to which tens of pages were grossly copy-pasted.

The scandal gained magnitude also because the coordinator of the paper was none other else but Ponta’s political tutor, Adrian Nastase, himself a former prime minister, sentenced to prison on corruption charges. However, in Ponta’s case, the proven plagiarism of his paper was not a strong enough reason for him to step down, as is natural, in the case of a high level politician in a civilized country.