In the media

Romania’s strict anti-corruption measures targeting exam cheating led to a drop in overall pass rates from 80% to 43%, with low-income students experiencing a 14.3% decline compared to 8.1% for wealthier peers. Wealthier students exploited the system by paying poorer peers to bribe invigilators. The campaign, involving CCTV and severe penalties, unintentionally widened the inequality gap.

Tuition for university studies has been growing steadily in Romania in the last few years, according to the National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania (ANOSR). Many of the taxes paid by students at 21 universities in the country are "unjustified, borderline illegal or simply illegal".

A new anti-corruption campaign is being launched in Romania, this one aimed at students who give gifts to their teachers. A civic group and the government have teamed up to produce and distribute a guide that tells students that giving their teachers gifts such as flowers or money is "an act of masked corruption". Beginning next month, the guide will be distributed in Bucharest to high school students.

The Council for Degree Accreditation (KYSATS) and the Pancyprian Association of Medical Practitioners are investigating some Cypriot and Greek doctors accused of having bought fake medical degrees from Romanian universities. However, it has been confirmed that it would be very difficult to validate whether a degree was bought or earned, because they would not examine the candidates' knowledge, instead the procedures and whether all the procedures were followed and legal is what is going to be investigated.

Corruption and survival-level bribery may have been endemic in the communist era, but laws have been rewritten since 1989 in an effort to combat the problem. Nevertheless, the institutions are not strong enough to deal with corruption and still everybody pay bribes to doctors, teachers and to officials.