Universities in the Republic of Moldova remain without studies: From 2010 until now, the number has halved
Universities in the Republic of Moldova remain without studies: From 2010 until now, the number has halved
Moldovan universities remain without students. Since 2010, the number of young people attending college has halved. The situation has been partially remedied in the last two years, when, due to the pandemic, several students remained in the country. The evolution of the number of foreign students who come to study in Moldova is also interesting. They pay about $ 100 million a year. The findings belong to the economic analyst, Veaceslav Ioniță, who made a synthesis of higher education in Moldova.
In 2006, Moldova had 128 thousand students. There followed 13 years of continuous decrease in the number, so in 2019, the number of students halved, reaching 56 thousand. The economic analyst identified two factors that led to a decrease in the number of students.
“The first factor, the most dramatic and the one that hit us the hardest, is related to the fact that we simply don’t have young people in the country anymore. We have gone through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that deep economic crisis has led to a dramatic drop in the number of newborns. We have been feeling this since 2010. Universities are the first to feel the drama of demographic decline in the Republic of Moldova. The second factor that has strongly influenced the number of students in universities is the migration of young people. Every year, 4,500 young people aged 19-24 go abroad “, says economic analyst Veaceslav Ioniță.
As a result, the labor market suffers, says the expert.
“On the labor market, if 10 years ago 423 thousand people entered and if we divide by six years, that this is the group I took, then it turns out 70 thousand citizens entered the labor market, now their number has dropped to 35,000. In fact, we have a dramatic decrease in the number of young people “, says Ioniță.
However, in the last two years, the economic analyst has noticed an increase in the number of students in classrooms by about 3 thousand. The pandemic, the growing interest of people over 30 in university studies, and foreign students who prefer to study in Moldova are the reasons for this growth.
“Because of the pandemic, many young people did not have the opportunity or considered that the effort is too great and instead of going abroad to a college they stayed in the country. We have more than a thousand young people, who usually went abroad, but because of the pandemic they stayed in the country. But this factor is not long lasting. The second factor, strange as it may seem, are those who are saved in the current universities in the country are the second youth. The number of students is increasing at the expense of those over 30 years. The biggest increase is for the group of 35 years and more “, says the economic analyst.
According to Veaceslav Ioniță, every seventh student in the classrooms came from abroad. Now, 4,600 foreign students are studying in the Republic of Moldova – three times more than 10 years ago. Foreign students annual status insurance with $ 100 million and their existence, is provided to universities in the country.