VALOAREA CUNOŞTINŢELOR ÎN SOCIETATEA IGNORANŢEI

Nicolae CANTAREAN, Jamil OWEIDAH* Universitarea Liberă Internaţională din Moldova * Israel

Abstract

There are 6,200 faculty members in Moldova’s universities and colleges (on average 1 faculty member per 20.3 students). Out of these, only 2,700 (43%) hold PhD degrees, including 358 (5.8%) that also hold the highest academic degree: Habilitation. Moldovan faculty members usually teach around 20 hours per week (one of the highest workloads in the world). 52.5% of students major in economics, law, social sciences, or in some fields that the Moldovan Ministry of Education calls on its website “professional formation fields”, 18.4% study engineering and architecture, 16.0% - education. There are a total of 90 specialities (majors) offered. 101,100 students, or 80.2%, pay for their studies (from 2,000 to 7,300 Moldovan lei per year, i.e. from 120 to 430 euros per year). The state is trying to increase the number of places offered free of charge when students are admitted to public universities: there were 5,085 in 2001, 5,290 in 2002, 5,628 in 2003, 6,354 in 2004, 7,048 in 2005, 7,835 in 2006, but this rate (54% over 5 years) is lower than the rate of increase (65% over the same period) in the total number of places. 15% of the free of charge places are reserved, and distributed to candidates from low-income families. In an effort to support them, the state gives scholarships to 70% of students who occupy the free of charge places, i.e. to 14.4% of the total number of students. As of January 1, 2006, these scholarships are in three categories: 210, 230, or 270 Moldovan lei per month, i.e. 12, 14, or 16 euros per month respectively.