Civil society and control of corruption: assessing governance of Romanian public universities

Romania is perceived as the most corrupt EU member state according to Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. In 2008-2009, a grassroots coalition of civil society organizations and education stakeholders created the Coalition for Clean Universities which organized the first assessment of integrity of the Romanian higher education system, The Coalition evaluated 42 state universities on the basis of an original methodology, in terms of Administrative Integrity, Academic Integrity, Democratic Governance, Academic Governance and Sound Finance for a time internal of one academic year. The evaluation found systemic problems in the organization and functioning of university life, and attributed them to the failure to build accountability systems at university level following decentralization of higher education after 1989. The results, in the form of a ranking of universities, were made public and hotly debated, creating a major incentive for universities to compete for a better public image, and therefore for reform of their practices.