In brief

  • The body that forecasts how many students Romania needs is set up again as a commission, not a council: 17 members, a four-year term, a new regulation and a rule that nobody may chair it for more than 4 years in total.
  • The commission proposes to the ministry the number of study places for the coming academic year and, on request, the methodology for splitting the state-funded places between universities.
  • The second order of the day reorganises the doctoral schools of Universitatea din București: six change their name, four are abolished, two new ones appear.
Act: MEC Orders no. 4.650 and 4.652/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 708 of 26 August 2026
In force from: 26 August 2026

Next year’s number of study places, that is the count of state-funded places universities are given, is proposed by a body that has just received new rules of operation. Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.650/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 708 of 26 August 2026, approves the regulation of the National Commission for Higher Education Statistics and Forecasting. The same edition also carries Order no. 4.652/2026, which reorganises the doctoral schools of Universitatea din București. Both bear the signature of Minister Mihai Dimian, dated 12 August, and they come on top of the list of universities that train future teachers, published the same day.

The commission, CNSPIS for short, is an advisory body of the ministry with no legal personality of its own. It replaces the National Council of the same name and the same acronym, governed by Order of the Minister of National Education no. 3.921/2018, which is repealed.

Its mission is to support the ministry in monitoring and forecasting how higher education develops, measured against the way the labour market moves.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is the list of tasks. The commission draws up and submits for approval the set of indicators for monitoring higher education, analyses the data, takes part in matching those indicators with the European ones, produces studies and forecasts and monitors the indicators it has proposed.

The second effect is the most concrete one for students. The commission proposes to the ministry a forecast for the number of study places for the coming academic year and, at the ministry’s request, a methodology for the preliminary allocation of state-funded places between institutions.

The third effect is transparency. The ministry publishes every year the data matching the indicators drawn up by the commission.

The fourth effect is the membership. Seventeen members: academics holding at least the rank of associate professor or an equivalent obtained abroad, or members of the Romanian Academy and of certain cultural institutions, appointed by order of the minister. It may also include a member of the representative trade union federation in state higher education, with the right to vote. The students’ representative takes part as an observer, without a vote.

The fifth effect concerns terms of office. Four years, renewable but not beyond 8 years. Nobody may serve as president for a cumulative period longer than 4 years, whatever the breaks in between.

The sixth effect is the attendance rule. A member who is absent without excuse from 3 consecutive meetings, or from half the meetings held in a year, is taken not to be involved on any systematic basis and may be removed from office by the minister.

The seventh effect is the quorum. Decisions are taken with at least 9 members present, either in person or by video conference, and in exceptional cases by electronic vote, again with a minimum of 9 votes and with the papers sent out at least 24 hours in advance. They are adopted by a simple majority of those present.

The eighth effect is the money. For every meeting or working session held outside their main employment, members receive gross pay equal to one twentieth of the gross basic salary of a university professor at the highest salary grade coefficient, in publicly funded institutions. Travel, daily allowance and accommodation are reimbursed.

The ninth effect comes from the second order. At Universitatea din București, six doctoral schools change their name, four entries on the list are repealed, and two new schools are added: Școala Doctorală de Biologie și Ecologie, for the fields of Biology and Environmental science, and Școala Doctorală Limbi și Literaturi Străine, for the field of Philology.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The first change is what the body legally is. The council becomes a commission, and the legal basis moves from the old education act to Law no. 199/2023 on higher education, Articles 154 and 159.

The second change is remote voting. The regulation states expressly that members may vote both directly, in the meeting, and from a distance, and that attendance may be secured by video conference.

The third change is the limit of 4 cumulative years in the chair, whatever the breaks in between. It is a rule against concentration of office that the old text did not have.

The fourth change is the removal procedure, with written criteria for systematic lack of involvement and with removal open to be requested of the minister either by the Executive Bureau or by one or more members.

The fifth change is a deadline for getting organised: the commission has to adopt internal rules of procedure within 60 days of the publication of the regulation, that is by 25 October 2026.

The sixth change, at Universitatea din București, is the move from descriptive names to institutional ones. „Școala doctorală pentru domeniul Geologie” becomes „Școala Doctorală de Geologie”, and „Școala doctorală din cadrul Facultății de Litere” becomes „Școala Doctorală Litere”.

What does not change is who holds the purse. The resources of the commission are provided by the ministry through the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding, UEFISCDI, which also administers them.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The body that proposes the number of study places has, at last, written rules on quorum, on voting and on removal from office.
  • The limit of 4 cumulative years in the chair stops the office being locked up by the same person.
  • Voting by video conference and by electronic means make the body workable without travel, in a commission whose members come from all over the country.
  • The criteria for lack of involvement are objective: 3 consecutive absences or half the meetings of the year.
  • Publishing the indicator data every year turns the work of the commission into public information that can be checked.
  • The reorganisation of the doctoral schools of Universitatea din București comes from senate decisions, so from the institution’s own choice rather than being imposed from above.

What remains a problem

  • The minutes of the meeting have to be made available within 48 hours by a technical secretariat that the regulation nowhere sets up.
  • A quorum of 9 out of 17 allows a decision to be adopted on 5 votes, that is fewer than a third of the membership.
  • The students’ representative stays an observer without a vote, in a body that proposes the number of state-funded places.
  • The regulation does not provide for the minutes to be published, only for them to be sent to members and to the directorate in the ministry.
  • Pay per meeting is pegged to the salary of a university professor, but the act does not say who checks the number of meetings paid for.
  • The order on the doctoral schools says nothing about what happens to the doctoral students enrolled under the four repealed entries.

Practical advice

  1. If you are a university academic holding the rank of associate professor or above, you may be appointed to the commission by order of the minister. Selection goes on scientific achievement of national and international standing.
  2. If you are a member, keep the absence threshold in mind: 3 consecutive meetings missed without excuse, or 50 per cent of the meetings of the year, bring removal from office.
  3. If you follow the policy on state-funded places, ask the ministry for the data published every year on the indicators drawn up by the commission. Publication is mandatory.
  4. If you represent the students, you take part as an observer, without a vote. The position is put in the meeting, not through the ballot.
  5. If you are a doctoral student at Universitatea din București, check whether your doctoral school has changed its name. Six of them have.
  6. If your school is one of the repealed entries, ask the university in writing where your doctoral programme now stands and which is the doctoral degree awarding institution from now on.
  7. If the new doctoral schools are what interest you, the two added are Biologie și Ecologie, for Biology and Environmental science, and Limbi și Literaturi Străine, for Philology.
  8. Keep an eye on the 60-day deadline for the internal rules of the commission. Until they are adopted, part of how it works is left unspelled.

Frequently asked questions

What does the National Commission for Higher Education Statistics and Forecasting do?
It draws up the indicators for monitoring higher education, produces studies and forecasts on how the system develops against the labour market, and proposes to the ministry the number of study places for the coming academic year.
How many members does it have and for how long?
17 members, appointed by order of the minister, with a four-year term, renewable but not beyond 8 years. It may also include a trade union representative with the right to vote.
How are decisions taken?
With at least 9 members present, in person or by video conference, and by a simple majority of those present. In exceptional cases the vote may be electronic, again with a minimum of 9 votes.
What happens to a member who does not turn up?
If they are absent without excuse from 3 consecutive meetings or from half the meetings of the year, they are taken not to be involved on any systematic basis and may be removed from office by the minister.
How much are members paid?
For every meeting or working session outside their main employment, gross pay equal to one twentieth of the gross basic salary of a university professor at the highest coefficient, plus reimbursement of travel, daily allowance and accommodation.
What changes at Universitatea din București?
Six doctoral schools change their name, four entries are repealed and two new schools are added: Biologie și Ecologie, and Limbi și Literaturi Străine.
Why were these changes made?
At the request of the university, sent on the basis of the senate decisions of 18 March and 20 May 2026, on renaming some doctoral schools and reorganising others by merger.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • Order no. 4.650/2026, annex, Article 18(1): a duty with a deadline is placed on a body that the regulation does not set up. The text says that „Secretariatul tehnic pune la dispoziția membrilor și a Direcției generale învățământ universitar din MEC, în termen de 48 de ore de la aprobarea sa de către Biroul operativ al CNSPIS, o minută a ședinței, în format electronic”, that is, the technical secretariat makes available to the members and to the Directorate-General for University Education of the MEC, within 48 hours of its approval by the Executive Bureau of CNSPIS, minutes of the meeting in electronic form. The phrase „Secretariatul tehnic” appears once in the whole regulation and is defined nowhere: Article 8 establishes the Executive Bureau, made up of the president, two vice-presidents, the secretary general and the spokesperson, while Article 23(2) places technical support with UEFISCDI. There is no way of establishing who answers for drawing up the minutes within those 48 hours: the secretary general, UEFISCDI or a structure that does not exist.

Editorial analysis

The regulation puts order where order was needed. The commission that proposes the number of study places has an indirect say in where the public money for studies ends up and how many young people go into each field. A body carrying that much weight deserved written rules on quorum, on voting and on removal from office, and it now has them. The limit of four cumulative years in the chair and the objective criteria for lack of involvement are the two best provisions in the text: they block both the locking up of the office and the members who exist only on paper.

Two things lag behind. The first is the quorum. With 17 members and a minimum attendance of 9, a simple majority of those present means a decision can pass on 5 votes. For proposals that concern the number of study places for the whole country, the bar is low. The second is the standing of the students: their representative takes part as an observer, without a vote, while the trade union representative may have one. Students are the direct addressee of the number of study places, and the difference in treatment has no visible explanation in the text.

The third observation concerns transparency. The minutes of the meeting record who attended, what was discussed and what was decided, but they go only to the members and to the relevant directorate in the ministry. Publishing the indicator data every year, provided for in Article 2(2), is useful, but it does not cover the deliberation. An advisory body that proposes how state-funded places are allocated would gain from having its minutes published.

The second order of the day is administrative routine, but it is worth noting that the change comes from senate decisions of the university, taken in March and May, while publication happens in August. For the doctoral students under the four repealed entries, the order says nothing about continuity; the merger probably settles the matter, but the text does not confirm it.

What should be changed

  • Defining the technical secretariat, or expressly giving the minutes to the secretary general. That would give the 48-hour deadline an addressee, instead of a structure that appears once and exists nowhere else in the regulation.
  • Raising the decision quorum above half the membership. A decision on the number of study places adopted on 5 votes out of 17 does not reflect the position of the commission.
  • The right to vote for the students’ representative, or an explanation of why the trade union has it and they do not. The difference bears on precisely the body that proposes the number of state-funded places.
  • Publication of the minutes on the ministry website, not merely internal circulation. It would turn an advisory commission into a body that can be checked, at zero cost.
  • A continuity provision for the doctoral students under the repealed entries on the list of Universitatea din București. The order repeals four running numbers without saying where the students enrolled under them go.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 708 of 26 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 108 KB the act starts on page 11

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.