“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University from Iasi, 7th place in the national ranking made by the Ministry of Education. The reaction of the rector, Prof. Dr. Liviu Maha

The Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, the University of Bucharest and the Politehnica University of Bucharest occupy the first three places in the 2023 National Metaranking of higher education institutions, which was published today by the Ministry of Education.

In seventh place is the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University from Iasi, the best position occupied by an educational institution from Iasi.

The rector of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași, Prof. Dr. Liviu Maha, told our radio station that this ranking is representative of a certain trend, namely that of maintaining the same universities at the top:

Liviu Maha: It’s a complex methodology. What is important is that in the top there are almost the same universities. It is a confirmation of the fact that this methodology is based on what is essential, but we can discuss the nuances related to the importance given to certain criteria, weights, and therefore it is not a question of contesting a ranking, but of considering it representative of a trend and the trend is to maintain the top of the same universities, but also of an ascent of some universities that until recently were considered large-scale, let’s say, regional or maybe they were not present in what means top 5 or top 10 universities of Romania . In general, the criteria are quantitative, i.e. global results are taken into account, absolute quantities, i.e. the number of articles, the number of publications, the number of projects, the number of students, the number of teaching staff, which bears a certain criticism, for that sometimes in relative terms, i.e. dividing the results by the number of teaching staff, for example, the hierarchy might be completely different. So rankings in general have this problem – that they’re based on absolute, quantitative ratings, and that doesn’t always show the results per person, per teacher or researcher.

In the ranking made by the Ministry of Education, the Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” from Iași takes the 12th place, and the University of Medicine “Grigore T. Popa”, the 18th place.

According to the Ministry of Education, the National Metaranking is a mechanism for evaluating and ranking Romanian universities, based on the analysis of internationally recognized university rankings.

Metaranking is a precise and impartial analysis tool that promotes the fair allocation of university research funding based on proven performance and the identification of needs to achieve and sustain excellence in education and research, the Ministry of Education reports in a press release.

(Radio Iasi/Andreea Daraban/FOTO radioiasi.ro)