Moldova: Institutions Under Stress—The Past, the Present and the Future of Moldova’s Higher Education System
AbstractThe Republic of Moldova has a long history of shifting borders, and a short history as an independent state. The real development of higher education started only after 1944, in the form of an integral part of the Soviet system of education and research. After independence, its development was shaped strongly by market forces, a demographic decline, alternative study options abroad and last but not least, the all-too-often contradictory policy preferences of changing governments and ministers for education. As a result, on the one hand, the country perpetuated many of the Soviet institutional arrangements in the higher education system, especially the centralised governance arrangements and the academy of science system. On the other hand, the political will to break with the Soviet past and to orientate the country towards Romania and the European Union has spawned a number of policy initiatives, including the ascension to the Bologna Process, greater institutional autonomy, governance democratisation and the implementation of a quality assurance framework along European models. Their implementation, however, has often been hampered by relatively weak institutions and political factionism. As a consequence, the differentiation of the HE system of the Republic of Moldova takes the shape of a dynamic, often contradictory process in which instable institutions are attempting to cope with growing pressures of global, European and local origins.