Protest against the Government's measures. A well-known university professor broke his doctor's degree live. “A simple piece of paper that confuses the state”

Cristian Preda, live on Digi24, tore up his doctor's degree obtained in France, as a sign of protest against the intention of the Bolojan government to reduce by almost half the increase granted to budget holders who also have a doctor's title and who work in the field in which they obtained their doctorate.

Cristian Preda, former dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Bucharest, stated that the attitude of the Bolojan government towards those who study in addition to obtain the doctorate shows that this title is considered “a burden”.

“We are talking about education because, on the one hand, in our society there have been some who challenge, including the president, the diplomas obtained abroad. That is, they say: the teachers in Paris are fools, I tell you, Dorel from Ferentari, how things are. On the other hand, the Government thought that the big problem of the country is the increase of 890 lei gross for the doctorate. And I realized that under these conditions, the doctoral degrees reached a burden. We expect to be sanctioned little by little for the Ph.D.,” commented the political scientist.

Then he took out of a folder the diploma attesting to obtaining the title of doctor in France and tore it.

“I'm more radical”

“I'm more radical. I realize that this doctor's degree has become a simple piece of paper that confuses the state. So, look, I'm breaking it here, at you. This is the value of the studies done for the Romanian state. That's it. And I think we have to take this into account, because people who have a certain education also have a role in society,” said Cristian Preda.

He argued that the problem does not lie in the money received as a doctorate bonus, which was anyway little, but the state's attitude towards those who have made efforts for a university career, given that plagiarists are tolerated including at the Victoria Palace, a reference to the scandal related to the doctoral thesis of the Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu.

“And if the state humiliates you in this way, considers that the big problem of this country is the minuscule amount of 890 lei gross, of which a few pennies remain for those who worked hard to make a career in universities and research institutes, then we must behave in the same way. I mean, plagiarists are tolerated, including in this government there is one who has been proven to be a plagiarist. And the problem is not dishonest people. The problem is Look, I gave it as a gift. That's the situation,” concluded Cristian Preda.

Government measure

In the administration reform package, it is stipulated that “personnel who hold the scientific title of doctor benefit from an allowance for the scientific title of doctor in the amount of 500 IEI gross per month, which is granted monthly only if they carry out their activity in the field for which they hold the title and if they have a set of objective and quantifiable duties provided in the job description that allow the monthly verification of how their activity is additionally valued.”

At the moment, the doctorate increase is equivalent to half of the gross minimum salary, but it was capped at the level of 2018, i.e. 950 lei gross.