The Minister of Education confirmed a very important decision that was taken for Romania, and that will have a major impact, because we are talking about a measure that was thought for the good of students in Romania, they will have easier access to loans.
In April, the Minister of Education had a discussion with the European Investment Bank regarding the possibility of granting loans for students, and now we see the result of these discussions, including in terms of investments in education in Romania, or loans for students.
"Sorin Mihai Cîmpeanu and the vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Christian Kettel Thomsen, accompanied by an EIB team, met with representatives of Romanian universities. The meeting was a follow-up to the dialogue that the Ministry of Education and the European Investment Bank initiated in April, in Luxembourg, in the context of the participation of the Minister of Education at the meeting of ministers from the member states of the European Union.
At today's meeting, organized in a hybrid format (at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and online), rectors and members of the management teams of 30 universities in Romania were present, as well as representatives of the Romanian Students' Union.
The topics of discussion concerned the EIB's investment programs: the student loan scheme and the investment program for Romanian universities (a presentation of these EIB programs took place at the meeting of the National Council of Rectors, Iasi, April 9, 2022).
The Student Loan Scheme Guarantee Programme, presented by the European Investment Fund (EIF) team, a division of the EIB, aims to improve access to education and benefits from European funds through the Invest EU programme. The program is applied through partnerships concluded exclusively by universities or university groups with the FEI and aims to support students to study in universities in our country. Both young people from Romania and from other EU or non-EU states can benefit from this program. Through the targeted target group, the proposed program can be a relevant factor for boosting the internationalization process of Romanian universities.
The investment program of the EIB for universities, which is being implemented, has a budget of 100 million euros. It takes place on the basis of the loan agreements concluded by the EIB with the Politehnica University of Bucharest (2019), the Technical University of Cluj–Napoca (2020), the "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy (2020) and the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj - Napoca (2022). Currently, the application submitted by the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș is under evaluation."
