{"id":10882,"date":"2025-10-07T08:39:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T08:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esu-online.org\/?p=10882"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:10:21","slug":"for-romanian-students-the-right-to-protest-is-all-they-have-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esu-online.org\/for-romanian-students-the-right-to-protest-is-all-they-have-left\/","title":{"rendered":"For Romanian Students, the Right to Protest is All They Have Left"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Students\u2019 Union (ESU)<\/strong> condemns the Romanian authorities\u2019 disregard for the supportive measures needed to ensure accessibility to higher education, as well as for the student protests advocating these measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ANOSR (The National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania)<\/strong> is organizing massive protests and marches across the country as the new academic year begins. The protests are taking place in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Ia\u0219i, Gala\u021bi, Suceava, Baia Mare, Alba Iulia, Sibiu, and Timi\u0219oara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between December 2024 and August 2025, ANOSR led a sustained campaign against a series of austerity measures affecting students in Romania, including the Emergency Ordinance 156\/2024, which limited access to subsidized transportation. Despite collecting over 50,000 petition signatures and addressing multiple decision makers, students\u2019 demands were repeatedly ignored. The adoption of Law 141\/2025 formalized the austerity measures, including a 40% cut to the national scholarship fund, prompting widespread protests in June 2025 across university centers. Students condemned the state’s neglect of an already struggling education system with a dropout rate exceeding 40%.

In August, ANOSR published a report exposing the chronic underfunding of student scholarships over the past decade. At the same time, students took their frustration to the streets. In Timi\u0219oara, over 500 student leaders gathered to protest, later going to the country’s border, to express that they are driven to consider leaving the country due to the government’s continuous ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at all the efforts initiated by students through ANOSR and the academic community over the past year, we face a state in which education is the lowest priority. The Romanian state disregards the needs and rights of its direct beneficiaries of education, the voices of stakeholders and civil society, which have repeatedly warned over the past months that these measures are destroying the education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the absence of the state-guaranteed rights and measures ensuring equal access for students facing difficult socio-economic situations, special educational needs, or medical problems, these individuals find themselves unable to sustain their studies and are forced to drop out, excluding them from higher education. This contributes to the growing phenomenon of university dropout, which currently exceeds 40%<\/strong>, posing a serious problem for Romania\u2019s education system and systematic failure to uphold the right to education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESU supports ANOSR\u2019s demands to reverse austerity measures affecting students, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n