ESU urges Romanian ministry to act on student rights issues

BUCHAREST – The European Students’ Union (ESU) calls upon the Romanian Ministry of Education to stop postponing the adoption of the much debated Student Statute. Allan Päll, ESU Chairperson said: “Since the Romanian students issued their proposal, their ministry has been reluctant to discuss the Statute. They should make an effort to get this statute adopted before the end of the year as it is of tremendous importance for the  students and for the credibility of Romanian higher education system.”  

A new law on education which entered into effect in February 2011 says that the Statute has to be adopted based on a proposal from student organizations. ESU’s Romanian member union, ANOSR has been taking lead in advocating for students in this. The students have sent their proposal, after five years of debate, in June and are now demanding action from their ministry.
The Student Statute comprises of a wide arrange of student rights in social, educational and administrative issues. Daniela Alexe, president of ANOSR said: “Since we have sent our proposal, we attended more than sufficient meetings with ministry officials and with the Minister himself, clarifying potential problems, but have found promises of deadlines for adoption repeatedly broken.”

She continued: “Postponing the adoption of the Student Statute leads to students not being able to benefit from the rights they should have in higher education, and also to universities not including these rights in their internal regulations.”

ANOSR says that this causes chaos for students, who do not really know what rights they can count on having, and thus leads to distrust of the whole higher education reform process going on in Romania.

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Published: 2 November 2011
For more information, please contact:
Daniela Alexe – President of ANOSR: +40753.152.276 or Daniela@anosr.ro
Allan Päll – ESU Chairperson: +32/479.591.499 or allan@esu-online.org