Is Developing Elite Universities a Top Priority Agenda for Higher Education in Romania?

This chapter aims to present and analyse the evolution of the higher education sector in Romania, regarding the adoption and implementation of the elite university concept or that of excellence. In particular, the aspects that we investigate relate to the policy agenda in recent years that has aimed at promoting excellence in research and elite universities in the national higher education system, as well as those strategic institutional developments that have occurred as a consequence of intense national and international competition. The questions that we aim to address are – is developing elite higher education or excellence in universities a top priority for Romania? What concrete measures have been taken in order to sustain this development at the government, regional and institutional levels? What would aworld-class university look like in the Romanian context and is one feasible? How important is the research dimension in the day to day life of a Romanian university? This paper presents and evaluates the strategic measures adopted at the higher education systems level in relation to research, development and innovation (RDI) and assess their effectiveness for developing excellence in research. The last part of the article presents the vision in the context of higher education system development and that of RDI in Romania. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.