The project for the establishment of a school for advanced scientific studies in Romania is based on the model of the French Ecole Normale Supérieure and was conceived a few years ago by a group of Romanian students attending that institution. This project is considered by most Romanian academics as a realistic way to redeem university teaching in Romania. Indeed, teaching at the university has experienced a dramatic drop in quality since the end of the communist regime in 1990, as most of the bright young students leave the country during their first university years.
The President of Romania, Emil Constantinescu, understood that the situation is becoming quite serious and promised repeatedly that he would support the creation of the School for advanced scientific studies.
Nevertheless, because the Romanian Government lacks human and financial resources, nothing was achieved until 1999, when three young Romanian scientists (former students of the ENS, France and MIT, USA) decided to start the project by means of private funding. They proposed a Scientific Committee whose members are outstanding Romanian and foreign academics and they are now trying to raise the necessary funds.
We think that the project for the establishment of a school for advanced scientific studies in Romania is a serious and realistic one and that such a school would play an important role in the development of the Romanian society at large.
We highly recommend this project to private and public sponsors.
Bucharest, April 2000.