The chances of pursuing a career in their chosen field are limited in Romania, according to the young students, and the university curriculum is considered outdated.

In fact, this year, Romania no longer has any universities ranked in the top lists of the world's best universities.

Victor Toma chose to pursue his university studies in the Netherlands.

Victor Toma, graduate of a university in the Netherlands: "I chose the Netherlands for the quality of education. There is a huge difference, especially in the quality of professors' training. In terms of research, they are far ahead of what we do in our country, and in terms of technical infrastructure, there is a vast difference. Here, the faculty has a website, all courses are available online, you can find the schedule, bibliography, everything you need, and a year in advance for any course. In Romania, it's a challenge to find anything on websites that are 20 years old".

Like him, every year, more and more young Romanians seek opportunities to attend schools in Western countries while still in high school.

Educational consultancy company: "Young Romanians go abroad because that's where they can truly build a career. They need to know from the beginning what they will get, and here in Romania, there is not much information from universities about what they will do during their years of study, and there are no integrated programs".

Currently, Romania no longer has any universities in the top 1000 in the international Shanghai ranking (ARWU). In the past three years, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj has been the only Romanian institution to represent the country.

Daniel David, Rector of UBB Cluj-Napoca: "Although the scientific output of Babeș-Bolyai University has increased compared to previous years, universities from other countries have increased more and faster than we have. The solution is to concentrate academic resources, develop truly comprehensive universities that cover all scientific fields. For example, we don't have the biomedical area, the area with the most publications and citations, and we lack three excellence programs to support our presence in the rankings".

Neighboring countries of Romania or those with similar histories have at least one university in this ranking. For example, Hungary has 4 universities in the top 1000, Serbia has 2, Poland has 9 and the Czech Republic is represented with 6. The ranking also includes universities from Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, as well as Ethiopia and Lebanon.

The top-ranked university in the list is Harvard University in the United States, followed by Stanford and MIT. In fact, the top 10 positions are all occupied by universities from the United States and the United Kingdom.