Comparative Analysis of University Education Systems from the Central and Eastern European Countries

Worldwide higher education has witnessed over time constant changes. This changes have made the University system to be over and over reshaped and diversified. In one form or another, all educational systems of higher education have been influenced by the European educational system and perceived as a model. University system requires particular attention from the authorities, both in terms of funds and comprehensive strategy on medium and long term. For these reasons, in this paper, starting from the premises that they have similar origins, we present a study involving a comparative analysis between the average of a series of indicators at EU level, and the results reported by Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and not least Romania. From one country to another university system can suffer substantial changes. If a number of European countries provide a free university system, others are leading a policy of decentralization and encourage these institutions to rely more on off-budget funds. The Bologna process was designed to create a uniform European University system, based on the same principles and characteristics and to provide the same global perspective to graduates indifferent of their country of origin. This is still far from being realized and this due to the fact that it is very hard to reorganize a university system in just a few years. We intend to analyze the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe because since the Second World War, they were under a strong Soviet influence, which made the University system to develop on the same principles, mainly in coordination with the needs arising from the labor market. The main feature of the Communist regimes in all this countries is that the whole system was centralized. In accordance with the needs of the State, a series of adjacent areas were developed. For this reason, universities could not implement long-term reforms and were to “produce” specialists in areas where the Communist Party estimated that there is a need in the future. Given the fact that these University systems relied on similar principles we intend to consider how they have developed after 1989, the reforms that have been implemented and what are the future prospects of this reforms.