Photo protest in Victoriei Square. Hundreds of students and students have sent to the Government that “scholarships are not a moft, they are a right” / what changes the government prepares
Student and students' representatives protested against the possible reduction of scholarships on Sunday, June 29, 2025. Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
Hundreds of students and students gathered in Victoria Square in the Capital on Sunday evening to protest the government's intention to reduce the number of scholarships, according to Agerpres.
At 20:00, the protesters met in the University Square, and from there they started on Calea Victoriei, to the Government headquarters.
“Do not cut from the students”, “tens of thousands of unheard voices”, “Exchanges are not a moft, they are a right”, “education is not just for money” and “do not sell our future”, wrote on some of the banners displayed by young people.
At the same time, a banner was displayed with the message: “Not from scholarships you make fortunes”.
In the press conference he held after the Government meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said that “it must be reconfigured” which is about the scholarship package, which he said “left three years ago from 188 million lei throughout the country and we reached 4.7 billion lei”.
“Any kind of scholarships are good, but think that we pay a billion euros almost only on the students' scholarships, and those who do an analysis of the grades will find a growing dynamic, over the established threshold, immediately after the scholarships appeared, not due to the student's effort combined with the didactic one, but because of the stockmark, and this must be reconfigured.
On Saturday, at Digi 24, the Minister of Education said that the “resizing” of the scholarships is mandatory “given that you are facing an economic crisis and you have a scholarship system that has exploded in the last two years.”
“Compared to 2022, where the stock market funds, both in the pre-university and in the university or taken together, were under a billion, in 2025 we reached 6.4 billion. So we have an extremely generous scholarship system, the most generous in the European Union. You have a scholarship system that has exploded over the past two years, you are obliged to look at the resizing of these scholarships, “said Minister Daniel David, quoted Agerpres.
What does the government want to change
The new formula proposed by the Ministry of Education involves the preservation of only two categories of scholarships:
- Social scholarships, intended for students from vulnerable environments, will continue to include the support given to minor mothers. These scholarships will be managed by the local social assistance authorities, based on a methodology initiated by the ministry.
- The merit scholarships will be awarded to students with averages of at least 9 (currently 9.50), within 15% of the total students in a class (currently a 30% limit). After the reorganization of the Olympics and competitions, the winners' prizes will be increased.
Thus, four types of scholarships will be cut – those for the Olympics (I and II), the technological ones, and those for minor mothers will be included in the social scholarships.
Currently, six types of scholarships are granted. They are divided in this way, according to edupedu.ro:
- Olympic excellence scholarship I: Between 750 and 3000 lei
- Olympic excellence scholarship II: 700 lei
- Merit scholarship: 450 lei
- Social scholarship: min. 300 lei
- Scholarship for minor mothers: 700 lei
- Technological scholarship: 300 lei
