MAE, Education Ministry award 100 scholarships to youths from Belarus

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Education Ministry will award, starting with the next academic year, 100 scholarships to youths from Belarus who want to study in higher education institutions in Romania.

According to a post on the website of the Education Ministry, the scholarships are awarded based on the decision of the Romanian Government of December 17, 2020 and will be intended for undergraduate, master's or doctoral study programs, in Romanian or in an international language.

The scholarship offer, the way of submitting the applications, as well as the selection calendar are presented on the website of the Education Ministry, on the specially created page, https://www.edu.ro/100pentruBelarus.

"The scholarship initiative comes in the context of promoting the principle of academic freedom at the level of the European Higher Education Area. This initiative offers young people in Belarus, including those who have been expelled from Belarusian higher education institutions for political reasons or who consider themselves threatened by decisions of the political authorities in Minsk, the possibility to continue their studies in prestigious Romanian universities," according to the quoted source.

In November 2020, the education ministers of the European Higher Education Area, of which Romania is a part, adopted the Rome Communiqué, a vision document for the next 10 years, which emphasizes the importance of the fundamental values of higher education. Within this document, academic freedom is defined as "the freedom of academic staff and students to carry out activities in and in partnership with society in the absence of interference and fear of repression."