Regulars
STUDENT LIFE
by Ruxandra Gubernat
May 2004
There's no longer any dignity in being a student. Perhaps it's because the quality principle - which, as a so-called ëelite' group we seek so earnestly to embrace - has been replaced by the quantity principle.
We claim bitterly that Romania needs elites, needs capable people, who should build this country all over again. We like to call ourselves students, but it's all on paper. We don't need diplomas and we don't want a façade. I believe that, as any other country, Romania must rely on average people ñ honest and motivated people. We are content with the shallowness of a name.
And we don't know how to take the back seat anymore. In a profound sense we have forgotten what it means to be a student.
We are facing an inflation of intellectuals. In Switzerland only 10 per cent of its citizens have access to higher education. Why does a country like Romania feel the need to allow the existence and functioning of so many universities?
They have literally sprung up like mushrooms. Every town, in every anonymous corner of the country, has become a ëcentre of excellence'. So much so that private universities are demanding affiliation with the University of Bucharest, in a deal that suggests that degrees and diplomas are very much purchasable. University of Bucharest authorities are saying they will accept this compromise in order to benefit from the funds flowing from what they call ëtrue students.'
Whatever happens, the attaining of a degree is becoming cheapened. During a conversation with one of my former colleagues, who is now teaching in a private university, I learnt the ënew wave' of students don't require superior education as much as ëliquidation of illiteracy.'
ìWhen I hear them talking nonsense and not knowing the meaning of words, I have serious doubts about how they got here and I wonder where the previously high standards have gone,î she says.
We guide ourselves by the conveyer belt principle that has transformed Romania from a society of workers into a society of students. In an absurd twist, this year the number of places available in universities throughout the country exceeded the number of high school graduates.
And the paradox continues, because every one of the countless number of students proudly says: ìMe too, I am a student,î no matter what it means.