A USR senator has introduced a bill to limit the number of hours students can spend in college each day. She says that the project started with the real case of students at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Grigore T. Popa” in Iasi, where hundreds of students complained, in addition to the increase in fees for the bachelor’s program, that they have classes up to 12 hours a day.

“This example of the inability of the existing legislation to protect the rights of students, as well as to ensure easy access to study at the university, is not unique. That is why I think it is necessary that students are not forced to spend more than 8 hours a day in college so that extra activities can be done, whether we are talking about work or hobbies or other extracurricular activities,” says the senator Silvia. Dinich, quoted in a press release sent to USR on Sunday.

Sylvia Dinica, a member of the Senate Education Committee, argues that tuition increases are preventing students without financial means from graduating from college.

“When we add in tax increases and employment, we make it impossible for students to work while in college, and therefore unable to pay for their education. We all know the consequences: expulsion from the university,” states the UDR senator.

A UEFISCDI report compiled in 2022 shows that the university dropout rate has reached approximately 48%. Of the total number of 120,309 undergraduate students enrolled in three- and four-year degree programs in 2015, only 57,705 were able to obtain a bachelor’s degree by 2021.

Taking into account that the required number of credits to pass the academic year is 30, and students can earn these credits for 6 hours of classes per day, the legislative proposal does not affect the educational process, but only determines the management of educational institutions in creating class schedules inclusively, which ensures compliance with social rights of students, says the initiator of the bill. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)