ROMANIAN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION VIEWED FROM A NEO-INSTITUTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
Ana-Maria Dima
(published in 1998 in: Higher Education in Europe, Vol. 3)

Following a rapid overview of the genesis of private higher education in Romania after the Revolution of December 1989, the author proceeds to analyze the phenomenon in terms of John's Meyer's noe-institutionalist perspective. Citing, in particular, Meyer's theses regarding the isomorphism of organizations with their respective environments, she credits much of the early success of private Romanian higher education institutions in getting started to their close copying of the structure, offerings, and procedures of public higher education in addition to unsatisfied public demand for higher education. She further shows how private higher education institutions have adapted to the requirements of accreditation and state funding possibilities. She fears, however, that the continuing demographic downturn in Romania along with the creation of extra-tuition fee-paying openings at the public universities may finally doom private higher education.

1. The Evolution of the Private Education Institutions in Romania
The states which form the European Community considers that the education in the private sector represents an alternative to the public sector allowing people to exercise their free will concerning the education form they want to chose for themselves or for their children. The legislation framework adopted by these twelve states guarantees the possibility for everybody to set up private schools and faculties according to the religious or philosophical options. Parents are also in title to choose an alternative form of education for their children.

Education policies promoted by the European Community represents the pattern for the Central and East European countries. In their attempt to harmonize their legislation system with the standards promoted by the European Community, the former communist countries took over an entire series from the institutionalized myths of the western system of education.
Following this pattern, Romania accepted the private institutions of higher education as an alternative for the public sector. This position was hotly disputed by the specialists in the field of education, politicians and by the mass media.

According to a comparative analysis on the higher education systems in the central and eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Russian Federation) signed by the rector of the Bucharest University, Ion Mihailescu in 1997, it seems that Romania is the only state that adopted a specific low on private higher education (Low 88/1993). Legal framework on this field is ambiguous in the rest of the analyzed countries. Some of them have no legal dispositions in the field of private higher education at the moment (Finland and Bulgaria). Russian Federation decided to oblige the private faculties to align to the qualitative standards of the public institutions.

The emergence of the private institutions in Romania after 1989 represented one of the most spectacular changes into the system of higher education. In most of the cases this type of institutions occurred in the absence of the legal framework, making use of diverse legal forms: cultural foundations, trade companies, charity organizations. The functioning of the private institutions generated abundant suspicion as to the quality of the academic services that their students received.

The number of private faculties increased from 101 in 1990 to 552 in 1998 (Table 1).

At the same moment the number of the students from the private sector reached 27% from the total number of the Romanian students in 1997 (Table2).

Table 1-Number of Private Faculties between 1989-1998.

Year	'89/'90	'90/'91	'91/'92	'93/'94	'94/'95	'95/'96	'97/'98
Universities	44	48	56	62	63	59	552*
Faculties	101	186	254	261	262	381

(*Total number of universities and faculties)

Table 2-Number of students enrolled at the private faculties between 1992-1997

Year	1992/1993	1993/1994	1994/1995	1995/1996	1996/1997	1997/1998
Number of Students	85.000	110.880	114.500	85.305	93.343	110.715

The analysis of the factors which leaded to the proliferation of the private faculties, indicated six possible causes of this phenomenon:

1) The low number of students in Romania before 1989 caused the accumulation of a big number of young people from successive generations, which failed in their attempt to become students. The consequence of this state is reflected in the age of the students from the private universities, which are considerably older than the students from the public sector.

2) The system's failure in offering an alternative to the young people mentioned above. This factor also reflects the failure of the system of higher education to respond at social demand. Private universities are another chance for people who failed their entrance examinations at the state universities.

3) The state budget incapacity to sustain the constantly increasing number of students in the following period so that the meeting between the supply and the demand of higher education might become possible.

4) The substantial valorization of the student status into the public perception. A study focussed on the social representation of students in Romania effected by Cristina Neamtu in 1997 emphasized the importance of achieving the cultural and material capital associated by the public opinion to the student status. More precisely, the image of the student is associated with the incipient social prestige (career) and the lack of rigorously social responsibilities (freedom).

5) Private higher education institutions have been very much market-oriented, offering a wide range of specializations required by the transition to a market economy. Thus, management, business, administration, marketing, finance and accounting, journalism, international relations, and low are among the specializations most sought by first-year students. Many of the private higher education institutions also opened faculties of medicine, social sciences, and even technical specializations.

6) The legislative vacuum until the enactment of the Law on Education in 1995 facilitated the occurrence of the so-called 'universities' which took advantage of a legitimate demand for higher education, conferring diplomas without legal recognition. Often these 'faculties' had been functioned in the absence of the most elementary teaching /learning conditions profit making being the real purpose of their activity.

Besides these six factors, the public opinion accredited the idea that public higher education is more rigorous in its student selection. This idea proved correct if we take into account the substantial differences in the results at the graduation exams between the students from the private sector and those from the public sector. The majority of the students from the private universities failed their graduation exams while the students from the public sector passed the same exams without special difficulty.

The joint action of these factors determined the occurrence of the legitimate concern regarding the issue of quality assurance.

Currently, in Romania, the activity of academic evaluation and quality assurance is governed by the Law on Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions and Diploma Recognition (Law. No.88/1993). The accreditation procedure has two stages: a) authorization for provisional functioning, entitling the institutions to organize competitive entrance examinations, to hire the teaching and auxiliary personnel, and to conduct educational and research activities; b) accreditation which confers the higher education institutions the right to organize school-leaving examinations, release diplomas and operate autonomously. (Ion Mihailescu, 1996)

The evaluation process observed five categories of criteria: the contents of the study programmes; the qualification and competence of the teaching personnel; performances in scientific research activities; material resources; financial resources. Each category of criteria has minimal standards. In the current stage of the evaluation procedures no excellence objectives are pursued yet.

With regard to the standards which must be met we can mention that some of them are particularly difficult for these institutions. For example, they must have filled 70 percent of the total number of full time posts, for each faculty, college, and specialization, and at least 30 percents of the posts must be occupied by university professors and readers.

The National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation is the main authority in the field of academic evaluation and accreditation. According to the statistics from April 1998, as a result of the activity of this academic body, only 118 faculties received the authorization for provisional functioning while 317 faculties were not authorized. A number of 39 faculties were still in the process of evaluation all the while.

2. Theories in the Field of Private Higher Education
Theories which attempted to explain the development of the private education sector, proceeds different premises reflecting the successive changes that have been occurred in the public perception of this process.

John Naisbitt, specialist in social prognosis, pointed that one of the ten megatrends which changed the life of American society, beginning with the 70's, was the social movement of turning from the institutional support to the self-support of the community. In this perspective, self-support means 'groups from the community whom actions are oriented toward crime preventing, improving neighborhood relations;… it also means control over the life and death misters-from the medical establishments to the natural births.' In schools, self-support means parents more involved in their children education; parents which question the quality of the state education system and reject it in the favor of the private schools or worse, in a radical form, in the favor of the education at home.

In the 70's, the idea that the new generation is less educated than the older ones, worried thousands of people. Naisbitt analyzed the public consequences of this idea and found that the enrolment in the private schools increased considerably.

Naisbitt explain the emergence of the private higher education by the active empowerment of the non-profit sector. His explanation is still valuable today in a series of countries that succeeded to transform the private universities into a prestigious form of education, conferring it a good tradition.

For example, in the United States the number of private universities represents almost a half from the total number of the universities. Also in Japan, the number of the private universities represents 75% from the total number of the universities.

Another author, Estelle James, analyzing the non-profit sector from a comparative perspective, elaborated in 1987 the theory of supplement and diversified request. According to this theory, the need for variety occurs in certain condition, when the community is characterized by:

a) Accentuate cultural differentiation (religious, linguistic, ethnical);

b) Preferences are geographically dispersed and the needs of the local community are hardly satisfied by the governmental agencies;

c) The government is forced to provide the same educational services for everybody.

In the countries characterized by homogeneity from the religious and linguistic point of view, as Sweden, for example, the government can easily satisfy the population's demand for education. But a special situation we met in Holland, where a significant cleavage appeared between Catholics and Calvinists. These religious groups succeeded to make theirs own schools that also received public subventions. There are also linguistic and religious cleavages in Belgium.

In Israel, the majority of the private schools are managed by and for orthodox Jewish, unsatisfied by the laic public schools.
In India, private schools and colleges are often differentiate by the teaching language associated to the origin region, religion (Muslims, Par's, Sikh) and caste.

Another theories are focussed on the prevention of the educational failure by developing the partnership between the public sector and non-profit sector. The social implications of the educational failure lead to hotly debates on determining the modalities of solving this problem.

Educational failure is a relative notion because it was the subject of the various definitions in different countries. For example in those countries which perpetuated selective exams and systems of evaluation, educational failure means pupil's failure to get their remove; or finishing school without a diploma; or just school abandon. States members in the UE consider the schools abandon as synonym with the educational failure. Anyway, it seems that educational failure always represents the inability of the educational system to assure a real equality of chances, in spite of all endeavors.

The partnership seems to be one of the solutions at the educational failure problem. Partnership means the cooperation between the schools from the pubic sector and the private schools; the cooperation between the schools, the non-governmental organizations and private enterprises.

3. The Newinstitutionalist Perspective

The newinstitutionalist theory originates in the articles of John Meyer-"The effects of Education as an Institution" and 'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony'. The latter article was elaborate together with Brian Rowan in 1977 and reprinted in John Meyer & Richard Scott work, " Organizational Environments-Ritual and Rationality," Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1992.

Explaining the structure of educational organizations, Meyer presents schools as organizations that seek accreditation not to accomplish instructional ends but to maintain their legitimate status as schools.
Usually, accreditation depends on structural conformity with a set of rules that are professionally specified and legally mandated. "They hire teachers who are properly credentialed. Persons lacking such certification will not be employed regardless of their knowledge or instructional abilities. These teachers are assigned to carefully defined students who are classified in grades that are given standardized meanings throughout the country. The teachers applies to the students a curriculum… Instruction takes place in buildings and classrooms whose characteristics and contents must conform to state laws.'

Institutionalization in Meyer perspective means the process by procedures, obligations and social processes come to be 'taken for granted', involving legal status in the social thought and action. In this respect, organizations are defined like partly 'institutionalized formal structures'.
Moreover, formal structure is defined as 'a blueprint for activities, which includes, first of all, the table of organization: a list of offices, departments, positions, and programs. These elements are linked by explicit goals and policies that make up a rational theory of how and to what end, activities are to be fitted together'.

The motivation of including the Romanian private institutions of higher education in the category of formal organizations is based on the structural similarity between these institutions and formal organizations defined in terms of the psycho-sociology of organizations. According to this definition, formal organization represents ' the type of organization with a clearly defined structure designating the norms, positions and particular roles assigned to the organization members. Formal structure also defines the objectives' hierarchy, the relations of authority, the degree of power and responsibility associated with a certain position, the communication channels, etc.' (Mihaela Vlasceanu, 1995)

Formal structures are not only creatures of their relational networks in the social organizations. In modern societies the elements of rationalized formal structure are deeply ingrained in, and reflect, widespread understanding of social reality. Many of the positions, policies, programmes, and procedures of modern organizations are enforced by the public opinion, by the views of important constituents, by knowledge legitimated through the educational system, by social prestige, by the laws, and by the definitions of negligence and prudence used by the courts (Meyer&Rowan, 1977). These are also called ' formal myths'.

During the last eight years, because of the occurrence of the private higher institutions, the idea of the university as a public services organization has become quite familiar. Interestingly, the public acceptance and success of the private institutions is a result of the favorable image and trust of the public opinion toward traditional public universities.

The symbols of the mimetism with the public universities manifested by the private universities at the organization structure level, are easy identifiable; assuming the title of 'University', copying the organization structure of the public university, copying the same type of courses with the same professors from the public university. These are only some of the institutionalized myth of trustees manifested in the Romanian higher education.

The number of private faculties was 552 in April 1998, and the number of their students represented 27% from the total number of Romanian students in the 1997. On the one hand, these data proves the significant amount of trustees accumulated by the private faculties in a short time, and on the other hand, it's easy to observe the similitude between this state and the first implication of the theory of Meyer & Rowan-'as institutionalized myths define new domains of rationalized activity, formal organizations emerge in these domains'.

From this moment our argumentation will be based on the similarities determined between Meyer & Rowan's theory and the isomorphism of Romanian private faculties with their environment.

Meyer & Rowan's theory enounced three consequences of the organizational isomorphism with their environment:

1) Organizations incorporate elements legitimated in ideological ways rather than in efficiency terms;

2) Organizations adopt external criteria of evaluation in defining the quality of their own outputs;

3) As the activity of private institutions depend on the evaluation and control bodies they are buffered of the turbulence and they can preserve their stability.

Concerning first of these consequences, it is relevant the case of many private faculties which awarded graduation diplomas. The problem is that these diplomas had no legal recognition in practice. Another relevant example is the employment in the private institutions of the most prestigious professors from the public institutions, in spite of the evidence that employing young professors it were much suitable for a new faculty.
The second consequence enounced above, is also present in the Romanian case, if we think at the process of external evaluation performed by the National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation. The National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation is an independent body composed of nineteen to twenty-one members elected for their acknowledged professional competence, exemplary morals, and impartiality.
The stabilization of the increasing number of private faculties and the stabilization of the emerging number of these faculties represents the proof of the turbulence cessation.

The objective of obtaining accreditation is fundamental for a private faculty because, otherwise, unaccredited faculties have to cease their activity according to the Law no. 88/1993 . For this reason, many private institutions were in conflict with the law statements, when they organized the illegal licenta exams, which also, had not been introduced from the beginning of the universitair year in the curricula. Trying to select the candidates who would be able to pass the licenta exams organized by the public universities, private institutions organized illegal exams of selection. Trying to met the law statement that request as a condition for accreditation that "at least 51% from the graduates of the private universities from the first three series should pass the licenta exam at a public university", private institutions were unable the avoid the paradox of committing illegalities in order to respect legal requirements.

The conflict between the prescribed rules and efficiency confirms the structural inconsistency emphasized by Meyer&Rowan. According to the authors there is a conflict state and incompatibility between the economic necessities of efficiency and legitimization necessities; or more exactly-'categorical rules conflict with the logic of efficiency'.
Another example of formal inconsistency is the case of the private institutions that functioned as small enterprises into limited liability. Immediately after the enactment of Law no.88/1993, these enterprises transferred their patrimony in the administration of some foundations and associations in order to met of the non-profit principle stipulated into this law. The report of the juridical commission that analyzed the case of the patrimony transfer under the above circumstances categorized this as a 'pro causa' action and recommended the legally refusal of their authorization.

Long term surviving perspectives of the accredited private institutions are expected to increase as a result of the fact that they become eligible in the state funds finance system. Success in the accreditation procedure allows private faculties increase their capital and their public credibility. Interestingly, we found another similarity between this situation and the third postulate of the theory of Meyer and Rowan: "Organizations that incorporate societally legitimated rationalized elements in their formal structures maximize their legitimacy and increase their resources and survival'.

In spite of the paradox that some faculties commit illegalities trying to met legal conditions, the great majority of these institutions, try to prove that the things are as they seem, that the student's contracts are respected and the legal procedures regarding accreditation are exactly followed. Once again, we find relevant the fifth postulate of Meyer-Rowan theory: 'The more the structure of a certain organization derive from the institutionalized myth, the more are displayed the trustees, the satisfaction and good intentions'.

Until obtaining accreditation, private faculties are constantly under evaluation. After obtaining the accreditation, they become institutionalized and from this moment, according to the Article no.9 from the Low 88/1993, every 5 years, the faculty council and the university senate analyze the teaching and research performances achieved by every teaching staff member and take the appropriate steps. This mechanism represents a novelty not only in the eastern and the central European countries, but also in comparison with many advanced countries. This five years interval between evaluations, involves the necessity to implement offices for quality assurance in these faculties in order to maintain qualitative standards at the legal level of competitiveness. In this respect Meyer's theory emphasized the tendency of avoiding evaluation and even of eliminating external evaluation, manifested by the institutionalized organizations: "Institutionalized organizations seek to minimize inspection and evaluation by both internal and external constituents.'

Another thesis of this theory reveal that organizations do often adapt to their institutional contexts, but they often play active roles in shaping those contexts. Related to this thesis, we can mention that sometimes, Romanian private faculties succeeded not only in their adaptation at environment but also they were actives in modifying this environment according to theirs necessities. The argument that sustains this assertion is the occurrence of the coalitions in order to promote common interests. For example, the coalition formed by three private higher education institutions from the medical field obtained the functioning authorization, which is the first step of the accreditation.

All arguments presented hitherto were supposed to motivate the reason for the author of this paper considered the paradigm of new institutionalism as the appropriate framework for the analysis of the Romanian private institutions of higher education.

4. Specific Issues in Funding of the Romanian Private Institutions

The great majority of private higher education institutions are exclusively financed from the tuition fees paid by their students.

The emergence of the private higher education institutions is one of the factors that accentuated the need for the quality evaluation of the higher education institutions and of their study programmes.

According to the regulations stipulated in the Law on Education adopted in 1995, private institutions of higher education are in title to decide upon the amount of the education fees paid by the students. The nature of the relations established between the private institutions and theirs students is settled by contracts signed by the both parts. These contracts also specify the nature, the duration and the amount of tuition fees for the educational services provided.

There is a manifested dissatisfaction concerning these contracts because the students have not even one consultative body or another mechanism of representation in the senate of the faculties. Because they are not organized, they are not able to make suggestions or to express their dissatisfaction. Furthermore, they are not able to control the way how are spent the tuition fees that they are obliged to pay according the contract.
A series of controversies occurred in the problem of taxation of the faculty's incomes resulted from the educational fees paid by the students. First of all, private institutions of higher education are non-profit organizations according to the Law on Education from 1995. In this context, the state taxation is perfectly legal according to the Romanian Low on the Non-Profit Organizations, which states that the income of the non-profit organizations is subject of taxation as well as the income of the for-profit organizations.
Analyzing this problem, the National Council of Evaluation and National Accreditation observed that there are two legal conditions difficult to be met by the private faculties. First, the obligatory condition of owning at least 50 percent of the total educational space and second, the condition that 25 percent of the total revenue of a higher education institution must be used for investment. These conditons might be considered as main reasons for absolving of taxation the private institutions.

Nevertheless the tuition fees are the main source of financing the educational private sector they are not the only one. Private universities are eligible in the sponsorship system according to the Law on Sponsorship from 1994. They are also eligible in the competition of the state grant system as well as the state universities. The state grant system offers funds for development, research scholarships and for postgraduate programs. These funds are allotted in a competitive system.

Unhappily, scientific research is undeveloped yet in the private sector of higher education so that the funds for research are very difficult to be obtained by the private institutions especially in the new context of the performance based financing system. There is an incipient tendency of setting up the hierarchy of higher education institutions according to some academically and scientifically performance criteria.

If the private universities are going to meet the quality standards settled by the low, they might become eligible for funding from the governmental funds as well as the public universities.
The goal of the new financing system is the removing of the old stereotypes inherited from the communist regime. The communist ideology stated that the education represents a sector that ought to be obligatory assisted by the state, no matter which is the quality of the out-puts. In addition, it has been accredited the idea that all higher education institutions are in title to be financed because of their social utility.
The establishment of the performance based hierarchy of the institutions of higher education represents on the one hand the best solution to the financing problem and on the other hand the guarantee for the quality of the provided services.

At present, the changed financing mechanism and the inducement of competitive financing forms dictate an objective evaluation of institutions, faculties and specialties.

5. Possible Trends in the Evolution of the Private Higher Education Institutions
During the communist regime, the demographic trend was positive as a response to the pronatalist policies. Communist demographic policy produced significant contrasts in the variation of the number of children born in successive generations. These contrasts are expressed by the huge generations of 527000 children born in 1967 by comparison with 231000 children born in 1996. Table 3 reflects these changes.

Table 3 Number of children born between 1946-1996

Year	1946	1956	1966	1967	1986	1989	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Number of children	391273	427034	273678	527764	417353	376733	314746	275275	260393	246594	246736	231348

The response to the growth from the communist period presented above, was not a more substantial allocation of resources for the education sector but the increase of the children's number in classes. Another solution as uninspired as the first one was the agglomeration of the schools program in three shifts. These decisions contributed to the worsening of teaching/learning conditions.

Currently, the possible perspectives on this problem fluctuate between pessimism and optimism. There is almost impossible to make an exactly forecast on the consequences of the drastically reduction of student enrollment in the next years but this is a serious problem of he education system and it deserves an attentive analysis.

In the optimistic perspective we should expect the improvement of the education services in the both public and private sector. The number of faculties and specialties will be considerable reduced according to the lower enrollments. On the other hand, the amount of resources allocated will be more substantial under this context.

An important consequence of the decreasing number of students related to private faculties might be the sharply reduction of their number and even their disappearance, in the end. This is the reason for these faculties have to increase their prestige by the recognized quality of their diplomas. As they have to attract students and resources for the survival on a long term, the only solution is the adoption of new strategies of management and marketing. In this respect they will be probably forced to give up the strategy of coping the institutionalized myth of the public sector and find out new procedures for success.

The other face of the coin, the pessimistic perspective rise from the concern with the possible lack of competition at the entrance exams caused by the low number of candidates into the near future. The high competition at the entrance exams has been always considered one of the main indicators related to the quality of a certain higher education institution.
At the moment, the only method of preventing this possible trend is the elaboration of a new education policy focussed on the compensation of the low number of students by the qualitative improvement of the their knowledge and abilities.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1)Barzea C. " Fighting Against School Failure, a Challenge for the European Construction", SOCRATES. Bucharest, 1997.

2)Constantinescu, R. "Romanian Higher Education During the Tranzition Period" in CEPES , "Higher Education in Europe", 4 (1994).

3) GOVERNMENT OF ROMANIA, Law 88/1993 Concerning the Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions and the Recognition of Diplomas. Bucharest, 1993

4) Mares, L. "The New institutionalism-a Paradigmatic Change in the Organizational Analysis" in "The Social Research Review", 3 (1994), I.M.A.S.-S.A ed., Bucharest, 1994.

5) Mihailescu, I. " The System of Higher Education in Romania". Bucharest, National Agency SOCRATES, 1996

6) Mihailescu, I. "Higher Education Systems in Central and Eastern Europe". Bucharest, National Agency SOCRATES, 1997

7) Mihailescu, I. Vlasceanu, L. & Zamfir, C. " Higher Education Reform in Romania: A Study". Bucharest: UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education, 1994

8) Naisbitt, J. " Megatrends". Bucharest, 1989.

9) Neculau, A. (coord) "The University Field and Its Actors", Iasi,1997

10) Meyer, J. W. & Rowan B. "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony" in John Meyer & Richard Scott ed, "Organizational Environments-Ritual and Rationality". Sage Publications, London, 1992

11) Vlasceanu, M. " Psycosociology of Organizations", Bucharest, 1995.

12) Vlasceanu, M. "The Non-Profit Sector", Bucharest, 1996.

13) Zamfir, C. "Human Development Report", The Reseach Institute for Life Quality", Bucharest, 1996.

13) Zamfir, C. and Vlasceanu L. (coord.), "Dictionary of Sociology". Bucharest, 1994.

Ana-Maria Dima, August,1998.

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