Romania has no university represented in the 2024 edition of the renowned international Academic Ranking of World Universities – Shanghai Ranking, published on Thursday. The rector of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Daniel David, believes that Romania can perform better in the international rankings if the fragmentation in the large university centers is reduced, either through academic concentrations or through the creation of new programs, and if it benefits from a more adequate funding of universities.
Romania, without representation in Shanghai Ranking 2024 – Photo Shutterstock
Romania has no university in the Academic Ranking of World Universities – Shanghai Ranking 2024, for the second consecutive year. The last Romanian university present in the ranking, Babeș-Bolyai from Cluj, left the top in 2023, which generated debates about the quality of higher education and research in Romania, as well as about the lack of support policies for the university environment, reports Edupedu.
Instead, universities from countries such as Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Estonia are represented in the top 1000.
Top 10 universities according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities – Shanghai Ranking
- Harvard University
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Cambridge
- University of California – Berkeley
- University of Oxford
- Princeton University
- California Institute of Technology
- Columbia University
- University of Chicago
Daniel David: “We need well-funded comprehensive universities”
The rector of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Daniel David, believes that Romania can perform better in international rankings, such as the ARWU-Shanghai Ranking, if the fragmentation in the large university centers is reduced, through academic consolidation and the creation of new programs , as well as through more adequate funding of universities.
Asked if the discussions generated by Romania’s absence from last year’s ARWU ranking and the new laws brought any change, Daniel David replied: “Too little!“. He appreciated the flexibility of some study programs, the personalization of the academic norm and the new research law as positive steps, but emphasized that “the allocation of major resources for academic concentrations and the development of truly comprehensive universities, by re-establishing the architecture of the Romanian academic environment, does not appear as an explicit and specific commitment“, according to Edupedu.
“If we want to perform better in the international rankings, we need well-financed comprehensive universities, and this can be achieved with a major impact in the rankings, following the French model, in the great historical university centers (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timișoara), where now the fragmentation is major, either by encouraging academic concentrations or by building new programs.”, emphasizes the rector of UBB.
Daniel David, rector of UBB, explained that the Shanghai ranking is mainly based on publications indexed in the Web of Science, including the journals Nature and Science, and indicators such as Nobel prizes, which are difficult for universities to directly control.
“So, those universities that are dominated by science and, above all, that have an important biomedical component (in the biomedical field, most Web of Science indexed articles are published) have a chance to enter the Shanghai ranking.“, says Daniel David.
Babeș-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, having a more diversified profile, with a significant weight in the socio-human and art field, failed to maintain its presence in the ranking due to the lack of adequate financial support and the faster growth of other international universities.
“Simply and directly stated, the laws/regulations in the country did not prevent, but neither did they explicitly encourage the concentration and consolidation of such universities in Romania“, emphasizes the rector of UBB, according to the cited source.
It is difficult to achieve academic concentrations nowadays because of the protectionist mentality of some university leaders, the new generations could adopt a more open approach and oriented towards the common good, the UBB rector added.
Daniel David suggests that to improve performance in international rankings, Romania should invest in well-funded universities, following the French model, and encourage academic concentrations in large university centers.
“Compared to the budget – much smaller than the universities that entered the international rankings in good positions – I would dare to say that the Romanian universities are not at all bad in the international rankings. UBB is, for example, this year on position 780-791 in the QS ranking.(…) But Romania has no universities in the Chinese Shanghai ranking, for the reason described above. If we want to perform better in the international rankings, we need well-financed comprehensive universities, and this can be achieved with a major impact in the rankings, following the French model, in the great historical university centers (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timișoara), where fragmentation is now major, either by encouraging academic concentrations or by building new programs. But there is also a need for better funded universities in the other cities where there are already comprehensive universities, built this way especially after the communist period, which can have a chance in the international rankings. Here, however, I insist on pointing out again that not all universities have to be “world-class / research-intensive”, aiming for international rankings! The country also needs local/regional/national universities of excellence, with a focus on education in the formation of human resources and on applied research dedicated to some target problems, to ensure the necessary development of the area“, emphasizes the rector of UBB, according to the cited source.
