Romania: where the official answers live

What you need to do

Romania separates two things that look like one from the outside.

Studying is the ministry of education: admission rules, the regime for international candidates, announcements of intakes and of places allocated under particular programmes.

Recognition of documents is the national centre for the recognition and equivalence of diplomas. It decides what your school or university qualification corresponds to in the Romanian system, and without its decision a university cannot enrol you on the basis of a foreign document.

For a candidate from Moldova this fork matters: Romanian citizenship or knowledge of the language does not remove the recognition procedure. A qualification issued outside the union goes through recognition regardless of the passport its holder carries.

Where this is stated officially

• Ministerul Educației — the ministry of education: admission rules and the regime for international candidates.
• CNRED — the national centre for recognition and equivalence of diplomas: what is recognised, how, and which documents are required.

How to check the requirement is still current

Start with the recognition centre, not with the university. The list of documents for recognition changes less often than intake conditions, yet it is what determines how long preparation takes: some papers are issued in Moldova and need an apostille.

Fees, processing times and document lists for Romania are collected in the facts on the country page, where you can also see when each was last verified.