The DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, "German Electron Synchrotron") is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen.
DESY's main purposes are fundamental research in particle physics and research with synchrotron radiation. For this DESY develops and runs several particle accelerators. DESY is financed by the public authorities and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres.
DESY was founded on December 18, 1959 in Hamburg by means of a treaty signed by the federal minister for atomic energy Siegfried Balke and Hamburg's mayor Max Brauer.

Functions
DESY consists of two sites, a larger one in Hamburg, a smaller one in Zeuthen, both in Germany.

Sites
The DESY site in Hamburg is located in the west of the city and is bounded by the ring of the particle accelerator PETRA. A part of the larger HERA (Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage) ring runs through the site, but most of the 6.3 km of the ring run under the "Altonaer Volkspark".
At the site in Hamburg most of DESY's research in high energy physics with elementary particles has been taking place since 1960. Besides the already running accelerators there is also a free electron laser called XFEL being developed. This project is meant to secure DESY's future place among the top research centers of the world.

Hamburg
On January 1, 1992 DESY got a second site with the Institute for High Energy Physics at Zeuthen (Institut für Hochenergiephysik IfH).
DESY Zeuthen is currently contributing to the experiments at HERA in Hamburg for example by evaluating data. It is also collaborating with DESY Hamburg in the development of the XFEL.
Zeuthen is also participating in two in the context of DESY's research rather unusual projects:

For neutrino astrophysics DESY Zeuthen made some major contributions to the development of the neutrino telescope AMANDA, which was constructed in 1994 by scientists from all around the world at the South Pole.
Located in Zeuthen is the "Zentrum für Paralleles Rechnen", where several massive-parallel high-performance computers are run and used for example for calculations in theoretical particle physics. Zeuthen
The research center has an annual budget of ca. 160 mio € (=195 mio US-$). Of this, 145 mio € go to Hamburg, 15 mio € to Zeuthen. 90% of the budget is provided by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, while the rest is provided by the state of Hamburg or Brandenburg respectively.
The experiments at the accelarators are financed by the participating German and foreign institutes, which in turn are often financed by means of public funding.

Budget and Financing
All in all 1560 people are employed at DESY, of which 365 are scientists. Those are distributed on the two sites as follows.
(date: January 2005)
Included in theses numbers are 100 apprentices as well as the 100 diploma students, 430 graduate students and 240 junior scientists who are supervised by DESY.

Hamburg: 1390 employees, thereof 300 scientists
Zeuthen: 170 employees, thereof 65 scientists Employees and Training
2900 scientists from 33 nations participate in the research at DESY. Hereof 1000 carry out research in particle physics at HERA, 1900 carry out research with synchrotron radiation at HASYLAB. (date: January 2005)

International Cooperation
The construction of the accelerator HERA was one of the first really internationally financed projects of this magnitude. Beforehand the construction of scientific facilities was always financed by the country in which it is located. Only the costs for the experiments were carried by the conducting national or foreign institutes. But due to the enormous scope of the HERA project many international facilities consented to already help with the construction. All in all more than 45 institutes and 320 corporations participated with donations of money and/or materials in the construction of the facility, more than 20% of the costs were carried by foreign institutions.
Following the example of HERA, many scientific projects of a large scale are financed jointly by several states. By now this model is established and international cooperation is pretty common with the construction of those facilities.

The International Project HERA
DESY's accelerators were not built all at once, but rather were added one by one to meet the growing demand of the scientists for higher and higher energies to gain more insight into particle structures. In the course of the construction of new accelerators the older ones were converted to pre-accelerators or to sources for synchrotron radiation for laboratories with new research tasks (for example for HASYLAB).
Nowadays DESY's most important facilities are the accelerator HERA, the synchrotron-research lab HASYLAB and the free-electron laser VUV-FEL, the test facility for the planned XFEL. The development of the different facilities will be described chronologically in the following section.

Particle Accelerators, Facilities and Experiments at DESY
The construction of the first particle accelerator DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, "German Electron Synchrotron"), whose name the institute is still bearing, began in 1960. At that time it was the biggest facility of this kind and was able to accelerate electrons to 7.4 GeV. On January 1, 1964 the first electrons were accelerated in the synchrotron and the research on elementary particles began.
The international attention first focused on DESY in 1966 due to its contribution to the validation of quantum electrodynamics, which was achieved with results from the accelerator. In the following decade DESY established itself as a center of excellence for the development and operation of high-energy accelerators.
The synchrotron radiation, which comes up as a side effect, was first used in 1967 for absorption measurements. For the arising spectrum there had not been any conventional radiation sources beforehand. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL made use of the possibilities that arose with the new technology and in 1972 established a permanent branch at DESY with the aim of analyzing the structure of biological molecules by means of synchrotron radiation.
The electron-synchrotron DESY II and the proton-synchrotron DESY III were taken into operation in 1987 and 1988 respectively as pre-accelerators for HERA.

DESY
DORIS (Doppel-Ring-Speicher, "double-ring storage"), built between 1969 and 1974, was DESY's second circular accelerator and its first storage ring with a circumference of nearly 300 m. Constructed as an electron-positron storage ring, one could conduct collision-experiments with electrons and their antiparticles at energies of 3.5 GeV per beam. In 1978 the energy of the beams was risen to 5 GeV each.
With evidence of the "excited charmonium states" DORIS made an important contribution to the process of proving the existence of heavy quarks. In the same year there were the first tests of X-ray lithography at DESY, a procedure which was later refined to X-ray depth lithography.
In 1987 the ARGUS detector of the DORIS storage ring was the first place where the conversion of a B-meson into its antiparticle, the anti-B-meson was observed. From this one could conclude that it was possible, for the second-heaviest quark - the bottom-quark - under certain circumstances to convert into a different quark. One could also conclude from this that the unknown sixth quark - the top quark - had to possess a huge mass. The top quark was found eventually in 1995 at the Fermilab in the USA.
After the commissioning of HASYLAB in 1980 the synchrotron radiation, which was generated at DORIS as a byproduct, was used for research there. While in the beginning DORIS was used only ⅓ of the time as a radiation source, from 1993 on the storage-ring solely served that purpose under the name DORIS III. In order to achieve more intense and controllable radiation, DORIS was upgraded in 1984 with wigglers and undulators. By means of a special array of magnets the accelerated electrons could now be brought onto a slalom course. By this the intensity of the emitted synchrotron radiation was increased a hundredfold in comparison to conventional storage ring systems.
DORIS III provides 42 experimental areas, where ca. 80 instruments are operated in circulation. The overall beam time per year amounts to 8 to 10 months.

DORIS III
PETRA (Positron-Elektron-Tandem-Ring-Anlage, "positron-electron tandem-ring facility") was built between 1975 and 1978. At the time of its construction it was the biggest storage ring of its kind and still is DESY's second largest synchrotron after HERA. PETRA originally served for research on elementary particles. The discovery of the gluon, the carrier particle of the strong nuclear force, in 1979 is counted as one of the biggest successes. PETRA can accelerate electrons and positrons to 19 GeV.
Research at PETRA lead to an intensified international use of the facilities at DESY. Scientists from China, England, France, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and the USA participated in the first experiments at PETRA alongside many German colleagues.
In 1990 the facility was taken into operation under the name PETRA II as a pre-accelerator for protons and electrons/positrons for the new particle accelerator HERA. In March 1995, PETRA II was equipped with undulators to create greater amounts of synchrotron radiation with higher energies, especially in the X-ray part of the spectrum. Since then PETRA serves HASYLAB as a source of high-energy synchrotron radiation and for this purpose possesses three test experimental areas. Positrons are accelerated to up to 12 GeV nowadays.

PETRA II
The HASYLAB (Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor, "Hamburg Synchrotron radiation Laboratory") is used for research with synchrotron radiation at DESY. It was opened in 1980 with 15 experimental areas (today there are 42). The laboratory adjoins to the storage ring DORIS in order to be able to use the generated synchrotron radiation for its research. While in the beginning DORIS served only one third of the time as a radiation source for HASYLAB, since 1993 all its running time is available for experiments with synchrotron radiation. On top of the 42 experimental areas DORIS provides, there are also three test experimental areas available for experiments with high-energy radiation generated with the storage ring PETRA.
After the upgrade of DORIS with the first wigglers, which produced far more intense radiation, the first Moessbauer spectrum acquired by means of synchrotron radiation was recorded at HASYLAB in 1984.
In 1985 the development of more advanced X-ray technology made it possible to bring to light the structure of the influenza virus. In the following year researchers at HASYLAB were the first to successfully make the attempt of exciting singular grid oscillations in solid bodies. Thus it was possible to conduct analyses of elastic materials, which were possible prior to this only with nuclear reactors via neutron scattering.
In 1987 the workgroup for structural molecular biology of the Max Planck Society founded a permanent branch at HASYLAB. It uses synchrotron radiation to study the structure of ribosomes.
Nowadays many national and foreign groups of researchers conduct their experiments at HASYLAB: All in all 1900 scientists participate in the work. On the whole the spectrum of the research ranges from fundamental research to experiments in physics, material science, chemistry, molecular biology, geology and medicine to industrial cooperations.
One example is OSRAM, which since recently uses HASYLAB to study the filaments of their light bulbs. The gained insights helped to notably increase the life span of the lamps in certain fields of application.
In addition researchers at HASYLAB analysed among other things minuscule impurities in silicone for computer chips, the way catalysators work, the microscopic properties of materials and the structure of protein molecules.

HASYLAB
HERA (Hadron-Elektron-Ring-Anlage, "Hadron-Electron-Ring-Facility") is DESY's largest synchrotron and storage ring, with a circumference of 6336 metres. The construction of the subterranean facility began in 1984, and HERA began operation on November 8, 1990. The first two experiments started taking data in 1992. HERA is mainly used to study the structure of protons and the properties of quarks. HERA's construction was an international task: In addition to Germany 11 further countries participated in the development of the accelerator.
HERA is the first and only accelerator in the world that is able to collide protons with either electrons or positrons. To make this possible HERA used mainly superconducting magnets, which was also a world first. At HERA it was possible to study the structure of protons up to 30 times more accurately than before. The resolution covered structures 1/1000 of the proton in size. In the years to come there were made a lot of discoveries concerning the composition of protons from quarks and gluons.
HERA's tunnels run 10 to 25 metres below ground level and have an inner diameter of 5.2 metres. For the construction the same technology was used as for the construction of subway tunnels. Two circular particle accelerators run inside the tube. One accelerates electrons to energies of 27.5 GeV the other one protons to energies of 920 GeV in the opposite direction. Both beams complete their circle nearly at the speed of light, making approximately 47 000 revolutions per second.
At two places of the ring the electron and the proton beam can be brought to collision. In the process electrons or positrons are scattered at the constituents of the protons, the quarks. The products of these particle collisions, the scattered lepton and the quarks, which were produced by the fragmentation of the proton, are registered in huge detectors. In addition to the two collision zones there are two more interaction zones. All four zones are placed in big subterraneous halls. A different international group of researchers is at work in each hall. These groups develop, construct and run house-high, complex measurement devices in many years of cooperative work and evaluate enormous amounts of data.
The experiments in the four halls will be presented in the following section:

HERA
H1 is a universal detector for the collision of electrons and protons and is located in DESY's HERA-Hall North. It has been active since 1992, measures 12 m x 10 m x 15 m and weighs 2 800 tons.
It is designed for the decryption of the inner structure of the proton, the exploration of the strong interaction as well as the search for new kinds of matter and unexpected phenomena in particle physics.

ZEUS
HERA-B was an experiment in HERA-Hall West which collected data from 1999 to February 2003. By using HERA's proton beam, researchers at HERA-B conducted experiments on heavy quarks. It measured 8 m x 20 m x 9 m and weighed 1 000 tons.

HERA-B
The HERMES experiment in HERA-Hall East was taken into operation in 1995. HERA's longitudinally polarised electron beam is used for the exploration of the spin structure of nucleons. For this purpose the electrons are scattered at energies of 27.5 GeV at an internal gas target. This target and the detector itself were designed especially with a view to spin polarised physics. It measures 3.5 m x 8 m x 5 m and weighs 400 tons.
At the moment HERMES is able to conduct inclusive measurements (only for the scattered lepton) and semi-inclusive measurements (for the scattered leptons and some of the hadronic products). In the future the recoil-detector which was recently installed will enable researchers to conduct exclusive measurements (for all endproducts).

HERMES
VUV-FEL (Vacuum-Ultra-Violet Free-Electron-Laser) is a superconducting linear accelerator with a free electron laser for radiation in the vacuum-ultraviolet and soft X-ray range of the spectrum. VUV-FEL is based on the TTF (TESLA Test Facility), which was built in 1997 to test the technology that was to be used in the planned linear collider TESLA, a project which was replaced by the ILC (International Linear Collider). For this purpose the TTF was enlarged from 100 m to 260 m.
At the VUV-FEL technology for the future-project XFEL is tested as well as for the ILC. Five test experimental areas have been in use since the commissioning of the facility in 2004.
On April 6, 2006, the DESY Directorate has decided to change the name of the facility. The new name is FLASH.
FLASH stands for "F"reie-Elektronen-"LAS"er in "H"amburg or the equivalence in other languages.

Further Accelerators
DESY is involved in the project International Linear Collider (ILC). This project consists of a 20–40-kilometer-long linear accelerator. An international consortium decided to build it with the technology originally developed for the TESLA project. There has been no final decision on where to build the accelerator.
DESY is planning the construction of an X-ray laser, the XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser), which is supposed to be 3 km long when finished. It will produce extremely short and powerful X-ray flashes which will have many applications.
Furthermore the accelerator PETRA, which is currently used as a pre-accelerator for HERA, shall be reconstructed as a source of synchrotron radiation for HASYLAB.

The Panathenaic Games were a set of games held every four years in Athens in Ancient Greece.
The games were actually part of a much larger religious festival, the Panathenaia, which was held every year. Every fourth year when the games were also held, the festival was known as the "Great Panathenaia," and was 3 or 4 days longer than the regular festival. They were the most prestigious games for the citizens of Athens, but they were not as important as the Olympic Games or the other Panhellenic Games.
The first Great Panathenaia was organized by Pisistratus in 566 BC, and was modelled on the Olympic Games. Pisistratus also added music and poetry competitions, which were part of the Pythian Games but not the Olympics. The games were divided into games for Athenians only, and games for Athenians and any other Greeks who wanted to participate. The games for all Greeks were essentially the same as the Olympics, with boxing, wrestling, pankration, pentathlon, and chariot racing, but chariot racing was the most prestigious of these, unlike the Olympics where the stadion (foot race) was more important. The winner of the chariot race received as a prize 140 "Panathenaic Amphorae" full of olive oil.
The games in which only the Athenians were allowed to participate were somewhat different. These included a torch race from the Piraeus to the Acropolis (the supposed ancestor of the modern Olympic torch relay that takes place prior to the Games, though in reality the modern torch race was invented as propaganda for Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games), mock infantry and cavalry battles, a javelin throw on horseback, the apobatai (a chariot race in which the driver had to jump out of the chariot, run alongside, and jump back in), the pyrriche (apparently military exercises accompanied by music), and the euandrion (essentially a beauty contest among the athletes). In later years there was also a rowing competition.
The Panathenaea also included poetic and musical competitions. Prizes were awarded for rhapsodic recitation of Homeric poetry, for instrumental music on the aulos (double oboe) and kithara (lyre), and for singing to the accompaniment of the aulos (aulody) and kithara (citharody).
The procession to the Parthenon was, however, more important than the games themselves. During the Great Panathenaia (but not the regular Panathenaia held every year), a special robe (the peplos) was made by the women of Athens for the statue of Athena, which was carried to the Parthenon as part of the procession. There was also a large sacrifice made to Athena, the hekatombe ("sacrifice of a hundred oxen") and the meat from the sacrificed animals was used in an enormous banquet on the final night of the festival, the pannychis ("all-nighter").
The athletic events were staged at the Panathenaic Stadium, which is still in use today.
In addition, the Games included a reading of both the Odyssey and the Iliad.

The Kelvin water dropper, named for Lord Kelvin, is a type of electrostatic generator. Kelvin referred to the device as his water-dropping condenser. The device uses falling water drops to generate voltage differences by utilizing the electrostatic induction

According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research (Ministerul Educaţiei şi Cercetării - MEC)]. Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislations. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old. Schooling starts at age 6, and is compulsory until the 10th grade (which usually corresponds to the age of 16). Primary and secondary education are divided in 12 or 13 grades. Higher education is aligned onto the European higher education area.
Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Romanian education system has been in a continuous process of reformation that has been both praised and criticised.
Aside from the official schooling system, and the recently-added private equivalents, there exists a semi-legal, informal, fully private tutoring system (meditatii). Tutoring is mostly used during secondary as a preparation for the various examinations, which are notoriously difficult. Tutoring is wide-spread, and it can be considered a part of the Education System. It has subsisted and even prospered during the Communist regime.

Overview
The Romanian Educational System is divided along two main levels:
There are schools that do not fit in this framework, e.g. the "language schools", "computer schools", "accounting schools", etc., which deliver accredited diplomas, but can be taken at any level. These are lifelong learning, but how do they fit here?
Primary school is compulsory for all eight years, from years one through four being known as "primary education" while years five through eight are known as "gymnasium education". Most elementary schools are public. Private elementary education has a 0.5% market share, according to MEC.
Education in Romania is compulsory until the age of 16. In practice, given that most Romanians start school at the age of 6, the first ten years have been made compulsory by the ministry, starting with 2002. The educational system is nationwide and very centralized.
The system gives the following diplomas : Absolvire (elementary school graduation, after the Test Naţional exam), Bacalaureat (high school graduation, after the Bacalaureat exam), Licenta (University undergraduate programme graduation, after an exam and thesis), Masterat (Master's degree, after an exam and thesis), Doctorat (Ph. D., after a thesis).

Pre-University Level (Învăţământul Preuniversitar) is structured in 4 cycles:

1. Kindergarten (Grădiniţa or Învăţământul Preşcolar) - optional, composed of three or four grades (Grupa Mică, Grupa Mijlocie, Grupa Mare and, sometimes, Pregătirea pentru Şcoală)
   Primary school comprises two 4-grade periods:
   
   
   
   1. Elementary school (Şcoala Primară) - grades I to IV
      Gymnasium (Gimnaziu) - grades V to VIII
      High school (Liceu) - four or five grades (grades IX to XII/XIII)
      Vocational education (Învăţământ profesional şi tehnic), which can continue or supplant High School to prepare students for careers that are based in manual or practical activities.
      Higher education (Studii Superioare) is organized (or in the process of being organized) according to the principles of the Bologna process, which aims at the construction of the European higher education area. It has the following four components:
      
      
      
      1. Bachelor (Licenţă) 3 years in most disciplines
         Master (Masterat) 2 years in most disciplines
         Doctorate (Doctorat) at least 3 years
         Lifelong learning (cursuri postuniversitare, formare continuă), which includes postgraduate education occurring outside the Master/Doctorate framework. Basic organization
         In districts where a linguistically-defined ethnic minority exceeds 10% of the total population, free public schooling is provided in that language: some of the classes are taught in that language, and the language and literature of the ethnic group is "the main language studied", although Romanian remains compulsory. There are classes (or whole schools, depending on the existing population) for different linguistic minorities: Hungarian, German, Romani, Polish, Ukrainian, Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian, Czech, Turkish, Hebrew, Slovak, Ukrainian and Russian.
         Since 1990, private and religious education at all levels have been accepted and partially funded by the state, through the Ministry of Education and Research, provided they respect some ministerial guidelines. Note that it is impossible to open a school without following the ministerial guidelines, programs and curricula - so, in practice, all Romanian schools get at least some limited funding from the state.
         Furthermore much change has taken place since the collapse of the communist system - especially in terms of organization of the system. This article concerns itself only with the current educational system, and may not apply even for the last year's educational system.
         
         Minority, religious, and private education institutions
         Children can start as early as three years old and can stay until they are six or seven years old. The last class, call preparation for school is optional. Today there are many private kindergartens offering to children special programs such as learning foreign languages (especially English or French) or initiation in computing. For Romanian Children, kindergarten is optional. In kindergarten, minority students can start learning in their own maternal language. Public kindergarten is free, private kindergartens are quite expensive for average families. Usually, children spent in kindergarten three to four hours per day. There are also public kindergartens which provide food and after-lunch sleeping periods (only the food has to be bought). Few kindergartens have all-day program and most of these are private.
         
         Kindergarten
         If kindergarten is voluntary, Elementary Schools are the first educational programs compulsory in Romania and lasts 8 years. Most elementary schools are public. Private elementary education has under 2 percent market share, according to MEC. Unless parents choose earlier a school, the future student is automatically enrolled in the nearest school to his or her residence. Because of their reputations, some schools are flooded with demands from parents even two or three years in advance. A negative consequence of this is that in many schools classes are held in two or even three shifts, lasting from as early as 7 a.m. to as late as 8 p.m. Education is free in public schools (including sqme books and auxiliary materials, but not totally (some textbooks, notebooks, pencils and uniforms might be required to purchase).
         School starts in the middle of September and ends in the middle of June next year. It is divided in two semesters (September to January and February to June). There are four holidays (Christmas - 2 weeks in December; Inter Semestrial - 1 week in February; Easter (either Orthodox or Catholic in April or May - 1 week; and Summer or Big Holiday spanning from June 18 to September 1st), with an additional fifth holiday in November for students in the first 4 years.
         A class (clasă) can have up to 30 students (25 is considered optimum), and there can be as few as one class per grade or as many as twenty classes per grade. Usually each group has its own classroom. Each group has its own designation, usually the grade followed by a letter of the alphabet (for example, VII A means that the student is in the 7th grade in the 'A' class).
         
         Elementary school
         For the first four years a system similar to E-S-N-U is used, known as the calificative. These are Foarte bine (FB) - Excellent, Bine (B) - Good, Satisfăcător (S) - Satisfactory, but actually meaning pass, but barely, Nesatisfăcător (N) - Failed. Students who get an N must take an exam in the summer with a special assembly of teachers, and if the situation is not improved the student will repeat the whole year. 'Qualifiers' (calificative) are given throughout the year, in a system of year-long assessment, on tests, schoolwork, homework or projects. The average for a subject (that will go in the mark register) is calculated by the teacher taking into account the progress of the student and by using a 1-4 value for each qualifier (for example, if a student has FB, FB, B, B in Mathematics, then the mark will be (4+4+3+3) /4=3.5. therefore B - taking into account that the performance of the student has lowered over time a B, B, FB, FB will also be 3.5 but will be marked as FB because the performance has improved over time). There is no average calculated for the whole year, but only per subject per semester. Most students will have only B and FB grades, with S being rarely used and N only in outstanding circumstances.
         For grade 5 to 12, a 1 to 10 grading system is used with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst and 5 is the minimum passing grade. The system of continuous assessment is also used, with individual marks for each test, oral examination, project, homework or classwork being entered in the register (these individual marks are known as note). There must be at least as many note for a subject as the number of weekly classes for that subject plus one. Some subjects also require a partial examination at the end of the semester (teza). This requirement is imposed however by the Ministry and cannot be changed. The partial is valued at 25% of the final mark, and for grades 5 to 8 it applies to Romanian Language and Math and only in the eight year, Geography or History, and in the case of a bilingual school or one with teaching in a minority language, that language. The marks are given on the basis of strict Ministerial guidelines, as they count for high school repartition. At the end of each semester, an average is computed following a four steps procedure : First, all marks are added and an arithmetical average is computed from those marks. If there is a teza, this average, with 0.01 precision is multiplied with 3 the mark at the teza (rounded to the nearest integer) is added, then everything is divided by 4. This average (with or without teza) is then rounded to the closest integer (5/4 system - thus 9.5 is 10) and forms the Semester Average per Subject. The next step is computing the Yearly Average per Subject. This is done by adding the two Semester Averages per Subject and divided by 2. This is not rounded. The last step is adding all the Yearly Averages per Subject and dividing it by the total number of subjects. This forms the Grade Average (Media Generala). This is neither weighted nor rounded. If the Yearly Average per Subject is under 5 for a maximum of two subjects, then the student must take a special exam (corigenţă) at the failed subject in August, in front of a school board. If he fails this exam, he must repeat the entire year (repetenţie). If the Yearly Average per Subject is under 5 for three subjects or more, the student is no longer entitled for the special exam and must repeat the year.
         E.g. A student in the 7th year with 4 weekly classes of math may have 6,6,7,7 in class and 5 in teza. His Semester Average for Math is round((3*((6+6+7+7)/4)+5)/4)=6. If he had 7 in the other semester, his Annual Average for Math is 6.5 (and he passes).
         
         Grading conventions
         The first four years are taught by a single teacher (învăţător) for the most subjects. Additional teachers are assigned only for a few specialized subjects (Foreign Languages, Introduction to Computers, etc.). Staying first four years mainly with only one teacher, this usually leaves students with a long remembrance, with many people kindly remembering their primary school teacher as one of the influential figures of their lives. At the end of primary school curriculum starts to become congested. For instance, a 4th grade student (9-10 years of age) may have on a weekly basis
         *These subjects may or may not have teachers other than the main teacher. ** These subjects almost always have teachers other than the main teacher.
         
         3-4 classes of math
         4 classes of Romanian Language
         1 class of history
         1 class of geography
         1-2 classes of science
         2 classes of art
         1-3 classes of a foreign language (Usually English, French or German*
         1 or 2 classes of Introduction to computers**
         1 class of Civic Education (a subject teaching everything from personal hygiene to The Constitution and manners in society)
         1 of religion* (the status of Religion in school is quite controversial - according to Art. 9 of the Education Law, it is compulsory, unless the parent declares the child as an atheist [4])
         1 of music
         2 of physical education Primary school
         Classes are reshaped at the end of the fourth grade, based on academic performances. Many schools have special classes (such as intensive English classes or Informatics classes, providing one or two more courses in these subjects). Selection for such classes is done based on local tests. Assessing the students' performance is also different between primary and gymnasium cycles. Starting with the 5th grade, students have a different teacher (profesor) for each subject. Furthermore, each class has a teacher designated to be class principal (diriginte), besides teaching his or her usual subject. Additional counseling may be provided by a special counselor (consilier pe probleme de educatie - counselor on educational issues) or by a school psychologist.
         An 8th grade schedule may contain up to 30-32 hours weekly, or 6 hours daily, thus making it quite intensive, for instance
         In addition schools may add 1 or 2 subjects at their free choice. This possibility gave rise to Intensive English Classes or Informatics Groups, accessible only by special exams in the 5th grade.
         
         4 classes of math
         4-5 classes of Romanian language
         1 (2 in the 8th grade) classes of history
         2 (1 in the 7th grade) classes of geography
         2 (1 in the 8th grade) class of biology
         2 classes of introduction to computers
         4 classes of a foreign language
         2 classes of physics
         2 classes of chemistry
         1 classes of Latin
         1 class of art and music
         1 class of religion (see above)
         1 class of civic education
         1 class of technology (may be optional).
         2 classes of physical education Gymnasium school
         Life in a city school is very different from life in a rural school. An urban school will have over 100 or 200 students per year, science labs and well stocked computer labs, clubs based on different interests (from math, film and drama to Harry Potter), teaching assistants and psychologists, free speech therapy and academic programs for gifted students, whereas rural schools are usually tiny, with some, in villages, providing only 4 years education - the rest being offered at a nearby larger village, having only one teacher for all students (generally under 10 students in total) - a situation almost identical to the one existing at the turn of the 20th century. Transportation to and from school is almost never provided - and in extreme cases, in remote villages, students as young as six must walk up to 10 km to school if there is no bus or train. Only starting in 2003 was a very limited rural transportation service introduced (The Yellow School Van with a Little Bell - Microbuzul Şcolar Galben cu Clopoţel). Public transport for all students is in theory free, but, because of a very awkward system, students end up paying half the price for a season ticket. Students also pay half price at all commuter trains operated by Caile Ferate Romane.
         All schools follow the tradition of school turns (originally done for lack of space, but now the tradition). Thus, school starts for some groups (usually years I to IV and VIII) at 7:30 or 8:00 and ends at 12:00-14:30 while other groups (years V-VII) start at 11:00 - 13:30 and end at 17:00 - 19:30. Normally, classes have 50 minutes, with a 10 minute break (and sometimes one 20 minute break). From November until March, some schools reduce classes to 45 minutes and breaks to 5 minutes, for fear that 6:30 or 7:30 in the evening is too late and too dangerous an hour to leave school during the dark. School days are Monday to Friday.
         Teacher-student relations are quite formal, but this formalism has evolved in the past few years to a friendly, but respectful relationship. This is due to the difference of mentality between generations. While elder teachers usually demand respect and are exigent, some younger ones, who better understand what it is like to be in school, are friendly and understanding, rather than strict. Teacher-Parent relations are also formal, with teachers calling parents to school only for administrative issues at the beginning of the semester, and for reading the marks at the end of the semester. Those teachers able to break the formalism and reach out to the students are very highly regarded both by officials and by students.
         Some schools have a uniform for the first four grades, either the Ministry standardized issue or one of their own design. Years V - VIII almost never have a school uniform, nor any other dress code (but rulebooks provide for basic decency).
         There is no school lunch in most schools, as school either ends before lunch or starts after lunch, although few schools have an after-school program, that may include lunch.
         Both big city schools and rural schools may organize clubs, but this is left to teachers. Dance clubs, school sports, traditions and story telling, drama, music, applied physics or chemistry and even math clubs are popular, depending on the teachers organizing. However, taking part in these clubs will not be mentioned on any diploma or certificate, nor is it required. Contests between schools exist, with nationwide academic contests (known as Olimpiade - Olympiads) being used to promote the best students. These contests are highly popular, as they bring many advantages to the students taking part in them (like the ability to legally skip school for a longer period of time without punishment, easier evaluation at all other subjects, a different, better treatment from teachers, free trips and holidays, better preparation for the final exams - as these are structured like an exam) with whole classes taking part in the lower phase of such contests. Additionally, many Physical Education teachers organize intra-mural competitions and one or two day trips to the mountains. Other teachers usually also organize such trips and even whole holidays during the summer (tabere), this being a Romanian school tradition. However, field trips or research trips are not common (one or two every year), and are usually visits to museums or trips to natural habitats of various animals or plants, to gather information for a school project.
         
         Life in elementary schools
         The Romanian curriculum is known as highly academic but rigid. There are up to 15 compulsory subjects (usually 8-13) and up to 5 optional subjects (usually 1 or 2). However, unlike in the United Kingdom or France, these optional subjects are chosen by the school and imposed on the student - they are known as School Decided Curriculum (Curriculum la Decizia Şcolii - CDŞ) and are usually extensions to the compulsory subjects.
         For the duration of elementary schools, each student must take:
         
         8 years of mathematics, Romanian, music, art and physical education
         up to 8 of religion (any belief accepted, if a teacher cannot be provided in school, a certificate from any representative of the faith is accepted, if atheist or agnostic, another subject must be taken)
         6 years of geography and history,
         7 or 8 years from the first foreign language (usually English, French, or German)
         3-4 from the second foreign language (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Portuguese)
         3 years of Civic education, physics and biology
         2 of Chemistry,
         2 years of Introduction to Computers although in many places this subject can be optionally studied all the 8 years of elementary schools). Curricula in elementary schools
         
         Admission to high school
         There are five types of high schools in Romania allowing access to university, based on the type of education offered and their academic performance. All of these allow for a high school diploma, access to the Bacalaureat exam and therefore access to University studies. Unlike the Swedish or French systems, the choice of high school curriculum does not limit the choices for university. For example, a graduate of a Mathematics-Computer Programming (Real) Department of a National College may apply to a Language Department of a University without any problem. However, because of the subjects taught, the quality of education and the requirements for admission in universities, artificial barriers may appear: for example, a graduate of a Humane and Social Studies Department will find it very hard to apply for a Mathematics Department at a University because the admission exam for that university department requires knowledge of calculus, a subject not taught in Humanities and Social Studies. But there is no formal limitation: if that student manages to understand calculus, he or she is free to apply.
         High school enrollment is conditioned on passing the National Test and participating in the National Computerized Repartition.
         High school studies are four years in length, two compulsory (9th and 10th year), two non-compulsory (11th and 12th year). There are no exams between the 10th and the 11 years. There is also a lower frequency program taking 5 years for those wishing to attend high school after abandoning at an earlier age.
         Each type of high-school is free to offer one or more academic programs (profile). These are:
         Theoretical program
         Technical programs - Profil tehnic will give a qualification in a technical field such as electrician, industrial machine operator, train driver and mechanic etc. A lot of subjects are technically based (e.g. Calibration of Technical Measurement Machines, Locomotive Mechanics), with some math, physics and chemistry and almost no humanities.
         Vocational programs - Profil vocaţional will give a qualification in a non-technical field, such as kindergarten educator, assistant architect, or pedagogue. A lot of subjects are based on humanities, with specifics based on qualification (such as Teaching) and almost no math, physics or chemistry. Art, music and design high schools are grouped here. High schools belonging to religious cults are also included. Usually, admission in these high schools is done by a special exam besides the National Tests in music or art.
         Services and Economics programs - Profil economic will give a qualification in the fields of services, such as waiter, chef, tourism operator. Offering a quite balanced program, similar to the real studies in the theoretical program, but a bit lighter, and giving a valuable qualification, this program is very sought after (being second only to the real program).
         The following high-schools forms does not allow entrance to universities:
         Optional subjects are either imposed by schools on the students, or at best, students are allowed to choose a package of two or three subjects at group level (not individual level). Usually optional subjects provide additional hours of the hardest subjects, through "extensions" and "development classes". In addition, there are also a large number of specializations. A student can be, for example, enrolled in a National College, study a real program, specializing in mathematics-informatics.
         
         National College (Colegiu Naţional) - the most prestigious high schools in Romania, most are each part of at least one international program such as Cervantes, SOCRATES, Eurolikes etc. All are "theoretical" (see below). Most are over 100 years old, and all have a very strong tradition in education. For example, Saint Sava National College in Bucharest is one of the oldest schools in Romania with almost three centuries of tradition; Gheorghe Lazăr High School (also in Bucharest) is 155 years old and, like Sf. Sava, founded before Romania itself; Colegiul German Goethe is 250 years old Other national colleges are Colegiul Naţional de Informatică Tudor Vianu Bucharest, Colegiul Naţional Iaşi, Colegiul Naţional Fraţii Buzeşti Craiova, Colegiul Naţional Vasile Alexandri Galaţi etc. The last admission average for these is over 8.70, but for the best national colleges an average result of 9.50 is not enough. Entering in one of these national colleges is usually a sure ticket for a good university scholarship.
         Military College (Colegiu Militar) - a high school administered by the Romanian Army. After graduation the student will have a military rank (usually petty officer in the Army or Navy) and will allow him to enter an Army Academy without passing through basic training before. However, they are considered extremely strict (legally they have the same regime as army units and are considered military installations with all students being members of the army and abiding army rules and regulations, including lights out at 10 o'clock). Eg. Colegiul Militar Mihai Viteazu Alba Iulia.
         Economic College or Technical College (Colegiu Economic or Colegiu Tehnic) - A high school with very good results and with an academic program based on technical education or services (see below). An admission average of 8.00 is usually enough.
         Liceu (Standard High school) - An average high school, providing one of the available academic programs. The type of academic program offered is added after this designation (eg. Liceul Teoretic Dimitrie Bolintineanu or Liceul Economic Ion Luca Caragiale)
         Grup Şcolar - A group of two schools - a high school (usually offering academic programmes in the field of technical or services education) and a Craft and Trade School. Some are regarded as being the worst alternative to allow access to a highschool diploma and access to university, while others are very well regarded as they give highly useful and well regarded diplomas and provide a rather high quality education (such as Grup Şcolar Economic Viilor Bucharest - training gastronomy specialists, protocol waiters etc. - and owning their own hotel, restaurant and pastry shop).
         Sciences - Profil Real ("mathematics and computer programming" or "earth studies") - this is the most demanding of all the academic programs, and the most sought-after as it offers the best chance for university admission, teaching as it does most of the subjects needed for admission. There are 15 different subjects per year, with 30-35 hours weekly : e.g. Latin is compulsory for a year, Math for 4 years (5-7 hours/week - Calculus, Trigonometry and Algebra), Computer Programming (4 hours weekly - 4 years), two modern languages, such as English for 2-6 hours/week and French for 2 hours/week, also 4 years, Literature 3 hours/week 4 years, Geography, History, Chemistry, Physics (all of these 4 years, 1-2 hours weekly each), Economics, Philosophy, Logic, Psychology (1 year each - 4 years) etc. This will give an "Assistant Computer Programmer" qualification. Besides being the hardest, this is the most common program, as it is the most sought after.
         Humanities - Profil Uman ("social studies" or "languages") - more modern languages (3 or 4), Latin or Ancient Greek, 4 years, two years of each of the studied social sciences, more history and geography than in the case of real studies, but almost no mathematics, chemistry, physics or biology. This program still demands over 30-35 hours weekly but will give no work qualification.
         School of Crafts and Trades (Şcoalǎ de Arte şi Meserii) - a two year school providing a low qualification such as salesman or welder or builder. In case the student wants to continue to high school he or she must attend a special year between the 2nd year in the School of Crafts and Trades, and the 11th year in high school.
         Apprentice School - a two year school, almost integrally based on apprenticeship with a company, that usually also hires the graduates. Once highly popular, nowadays only a handful remains and will be almost completely phased out by 2009. There is no access to high school from this type of school. Types of Romanian high schools
         All the rules and regulations of elementary school apply here. Uniforms are a local issue, according with each school's policies. Few high schools have uniforms, and in case it exists, it is only used on special occasions (such as festivities, conferences, sporting contests etc.). Many high schools have their own radio stations, monthly or biannual magazines etc.
         Unlike the elementary school, there are no clear guidelines for marking. In different schools the same mark has different value. The communication between students and teachers is still poor. Usually students have no decision power in the workings of their high school, most high schools do not even have a school council, with all the decisions being taken by one of the principals (Director). Usually, each high school has at least two principals.
         
         Students' life in Romanian high schools
         High school students graduating from a College, Liceu or Grup Şcolar must take the National Baccalaureate Exam (Examenul Naţional de Bacalaureat - colloquially known as the bac). Despite the similarity in name with the French word Baccalauréat, there are few similarities. The Bacalaureat is comprised of 2 or 3 oral examinations and 4 or 5 written examinations, usually spanning on the course of one and a half weeks in late June and September. It is a highly centralized, national exam. Usually the exam papers are taken to a centralized marking facility, sometimes even in another city, under police guard (for example in 2001 all the exams from Braşov were sent to Brăila for marking). The exam supervisors (always high school teachers or university professors) cannot teach in, or otherwise be related to, the high school they are sent to supervise. Starting with 2007, the ministry drafts 100 different sets of subjects for each exam, and makes them available 6 months in advance through both the official web site [5] and via booklets available free of charge. The solutions to each of the sets are also made public by the ministry.
         The 6 exams are :
         Except for the languages exams, the subjects are provided in any language desired by the candidate (demands can be made "on the spot" for a number of languages - Hungarian, German and Romanian subjects are available in all high schools nationwide, with other languages in areas where the respective language is spoken, while for other languages the request must be filed alongside the registration form, two months in advance). Braille can also be provided.
         Each exam (Proba) is marked from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best, using two decimals for written exams (e.g. 9.44 or 9.14 is a valid mark) and an integer for an oral exam. Each exam is corrected and graded by two separate correctors (no computers are involved, as this is not a standardized test) agreeing on the mark based on a nationwide guideline. The total mark for the Bacalaureat is the arithmetic mean average of the six or eight marks obtained (0.01 precision). To pass, a student must obtain an average score of at least 6.00 and at least 5.00 at each of the individual exams. A student scoring a perfect 10 will be warded with special honors (Absolvent cu Merite Deosebite). In July 2005, 78 candidates out of a total 179878 scored a perfect 10 (0.04%) while 149435 (83.07%) students passed the Bacalaureat. In case of failure (respins), the student is allowed to retake only the exams he failed, until he manages to graduate but no more than 5 times. A September session is held especially for those failing in the June/July session or for those unable to attend the exam in the summer. In case a student is not content with the mark received, one may contest it in 24 hours after finding his or her score. If passed, unlike the case with most high school completion exams, he or she may not retake it (although this matters less in Romania than in the United States or Germany.
         Unlike the French system, this exam opens little if any doors. It is a requirement when enrolling in an university, because, technically, without passing it, the student is not a high school graduate, but, usually it counts for almost nothing in the admission scores (in most universities, 0 - 20% is the norm). In the best possible situation, it makes up half of the total university admission score, but only in the most undesired departments of the small, backwater universities. Given the extremely atypical Romanian university admission system (usually another exam making up for the rest of the process), these percentages mean even less. Because of the perceived lack of importance, and because of the above average difficulty of the exam, many supervisors are very tolerant to misdemeanors such as talking during the exam, and, there have been some cases when supervisors allow students to swap sheets of paper with answers to questions between themselves. Bribing is also common, in the form of protocol, a sum of money (around 100 lei) paid by each student, months before, either to a fellow student, or even a teacher (the protocol treasurer) in order to smooth the exam organizers. Each year, major newspapers such as Evenimentul Zilei,
         
         Exam A/1 (Proba A/1) - Romanian Language and Literature (Oral Examination) - The candidate draws a literature subject at random and a text comprehension subject, also at random. The candidate has 15 minutes "thinking time" and 10 minutes to answer the questions in front of three persons. The exam is public.
         Exam C/1 (Proba C/1) - The language of study in a school where the teaching is done in a language other than Romanian (usually the language of an ethnic group) - organized exactly like Exam A/1. C/1 is taken only by those taught in another language than Romanian.
         Exam B (Proba B) - A foreign language (Oral Examination) - The candidate is allowed to choose from English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. The choice must be done upon registration for the exam (usually in May) and cannot be changed. The candidate draws one subject with two questions (reading comprehension and speaking) at random, and has 15 minutes thinking time to construct his answers and 10 minutes to answer.
         Exam A/2 (Proba A/2) - Romanian Language and Literature (Written Examination) - Usually an essay upon a literature theme (such as "Show the features of the modern twentieth century novel with examples on a studied work") and a text with 10-20 questions based on the text (such as "Find a metaphor and an oxymoron in the text" or "Comment the following passage in ten lines or less"). Half an hour before the start of the exam, the Minister Of Education draws the correct variant on TV, with sealed envelopes containing 20 or 25 exam papers being delivered to the exam rooms and opened in front of the students. According to law, each student must receive an exam paper, writing the subjects on the board being no longer allowed. Exam C was 2 hours long in 2005, 2004 and 2003 and 3 hours long in 2002.
         Exam C/2 (Proba C/2) - The language of study in a school where the teaching is done in a language other than Romanian (usually the language of an ethnic group) - written examination - organized exactly like Exam A/2.
         Exam D (Proba D) - Compulsory subject depending on the academic program followed in high school (Written Examination) - This translates to math for those finishing a real studies, technical or services program or for a choice between Romanian History and Geography for a humane studies or vocational program. However, the difficulty of the exam varies between the academic program followed in high school (e.g. a candidate that was enrolled in a real studies program in high school will receive a Mathematics 1 subject - the hardest math subjects, including algebra, simple calculus, trigonometry and geometry, while a former services student will receive a Mathematics 2 subject - a simpler subject, featuring only algebra and simple calculus). 15% of the exam is "multiple choice", 15% "fill in the gaps", the rest requiring detailed explanations and proof. Unlike in western exams, calculators, slide rulers or any other assistance is forbidden. Exam D is 2 hours long.
         Exam E (Proba E) - Subject at the choice of the candidate from the domains considered as the main part of the Academic Program followed in high school (Written Examination) - This gives the student more choice depending on the academic program completed. For example, a real studies student may choose from Physics, Computer Programming, Chemistry and Biology, a technical student/railway mechanic may choose Physics, Mechanical Instruments and Machines, Technical Instruments and Measures or Railway Maintenance while a human studies/languages may choose from Latin or a different language than the one in Exam B. The same rules apply as in the case of Exam D, with one exception - students choosing Basic Accounting (Services Program) may use an account sheet describing the function of each account.
         Exam F (Proba F) - Subject at the choice of the candidate from a lesser domain of the academic program followed in high school (Written or Practical Examination) - This gives even more choice, with a student from real studies being able to choose from up to 20 subjects, from Philosophy to Physical Education while a student in humane studies/social sciences is free to choose from Math to Biology and, of course, Physical Education (over 50% of all candidates take this subject, as it is not written, usually takes under half an hour, requires no learning and it is nearly impossible to fail). However, the choices must be made from subjects the candidate was taught in high school. The Baccalaureate exam
         In any country higher education is the moment of truth for the entire society. With many pressures from technical developments, a deficiency in designing higher education is a very costly endeavor paid by a country. The qualified job market suffers directly and one of the numerous direct consequences will be the decreasing number and quality of teachers and professors involved in the educational system. Unfortunately, this is the case in Romania, where the educational system still have many gaps, in contrast to the well established national educational systems in the US, Canada or Western European countries.
         The first modern Romanian universities are:
         In Romania, after 1990, the universities were the first type of institutions that started the reforms for democratization of education. They achieved autonomy, an impossible goal during the socialist regime. Students had been a very active social category participating in the social protests in the years 1956, 1968 and 1989. After 1990, they formed a very radical offensive campaign aimed against communist politicians. The University Square movement began when, around the University of Bucharest, these students proclaimed a 'communist free zone', installed tents around the area and protested for over 40 days demanding that communist statesmen be dismissed from public functions. Additionally, they demanded the autonomy of mass-media. However, Romanian students' movements were a model for other neighboring countries. For instance, Bulgarian students made an alliance with union syndicates and protested through marathon demonstrations and strikes. The difference in that case was that their union syndicates were strong allies of students. Also, their movement was less radical but more powerful and realistic. In this case, they succeeded to dismiss some communist leaders. In Ukraine, the social movements from the end of 2004 against electoral frauds had the same structure. Universities have full autonomy, in stark contrast from the pre-university segment. Each university is free to decide everything from their management to the organization of classes. Furthermore, many universities devolve this autonomy further down, to each department. Thus, there are huge differences between universities and even between individual departments inside a university.
         
         University of Iaşi (1860)
         University of Bucharest (1864)
         Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj (1872) Higher education
         The admission process is left to the Universities, and, as of 2007, there is no integrated admission scheme. Most universities will give an "admission exam" in a high-school subject that corresponds best to the training offered by the university. Some, however, due to the lack of relevance of the system have begun implementing a different scheme, based on essays, interviews and performance assessments. This was done because in most cases tests, especially multiple choice ones, offered just a superficial assessment and a limited outlook of the students' actual performance.
         
         Admission
         The professors tried to adapt curricula to that of their counterparts from North America or Western Europe. After 1990, Romania started many projects supervised by countries from the European Union and also in collaboration with the US, obtaining some projects and bursaries. The main goal of the country has been to adapt to the European Higher Education System. Especially notable were their effort for having their academic diplomas recognizing by other European countries and for developing international programs such as: Tempus, CEEPUS, Socrates/Erasmus, Copernicus, Monet, and eLearn. With US Fulbright programs were developed. Tempus is a program for cooperation in Higher Education started between EU member states and partner countries. There are four subprograms (Tempus I, Tempus II, Tempus II-bis and Tempus III between 2000 and 2006). Tempus III is actually a pledge for cooperation in higher education which states to deepen the cooperation on higher education, strengthening the whole fabric of relations existing between the peoples of Europe, bringing out common cultural values. The program allows fruitful exchanges of views to take place and facilitates multinational activities in the scientific, cultural, artistic, economic and social spheres. More specifically, the Tempus program pursues the establishment of consortia. Consortia implement Joint European Projects with a clear set of objectives, financed partially by this program, for the maximum duration of three years. The development is considered in small steps, successful small projects. Tempus also provides Individual Mobility Grants (IMGs) to faculties to help them improve their activities. In addition, non-governmental organizations, business companies, industries and public authorities can receive financial help from Tempus. CEEPUS, Central European Exchange Program for University Studies, was founded in 1994 by countries from actual and EU candidates. The program provides grants for students, graduates and university teachers participating in intensive courses, networking, and excursions. Project eLearn is being developed by European countries to accelerate and share their strategies in e-learning. Monet is a project which aims to facilitate the introduction of European integration studies in universities. The term "European integration studies" is taken to mean the construction of the European Community and its related institutional, legal, political, economic and social developments. The project targets disciplines in which community developments are an increasingly important part of the subject studied, i.e.
         The Erasmus Mundus program is a cooperation program intended to support high-quality European master courses. These courses are purposed to engage postgraduate studies at European universities. It targets another characteristic, educational mobility, through projects that try to establish consortia for integrated courses of at least three universities in at least three different European countries which lead to a double, multiple or joint recognized diploma.
         
         Community Law
         European Economic Integration
         European Political Integration
         History of the European Construction Process International programs
         Graduate programs might be the highest level of inefficiency. Unfortunately, in selecting a graduate program, the best students already have chosen other offers from a foreign country. After all, in graduate studies, people are responsible to produce the most sentient about inefficiency of programs. Usually, as was the situation for the undergraduate studies, there is a scarcity of courses to choose for future specialization. However, the lack of experience in researches, counseling, and management are more severely resented. There are weakly designed programs for graduate students. The chief direction for graduate studies are totally out-of-date designed. First, it consists of some courses and less researches than their counterparts from North-America. They mistakenly identify the assimilation of courses (often old-fashioned also) with creativity involved in researches, compulsorily required in graduate studies. One could argue that this is often involved in European countries, when graduates studies remained far behind their US forms, but the difference in Romania is far greater than other European countries. Often, it has been noticed plagiarisms, or just valueless compilations. Even though the number of graduate students rocketed, the quality of graduate studies remained shaky. There is also the question: who will conduct these graduate programs. Especially in the case of Romania when people were so much isolated, this question is difficult to answer. In fact there are two situations: The first situation signaled is a deficiency in qualified researchers. There was a lack of experience since 1990, which was not passed yet. In the well-recognized academic centers, some academic programs succeeded outstandingly. This was the case of the University of Bucharest or the University of Cluj. Some doctoral programs like Mathematics had a long established tradition. Many professors and researchers emigrated or obtained work contracts from the US, France, Germany, Australia, New Zeeland or Canada and maintained there a valuable tradition. For instance, George Palade obtained Nobel Prize in 1974, in biology. In other domains, especially where a costly technique is involved, Romanians researches encounter many difficulties. Starting with courses and preparations, now the difference between advanced countries in higher education and Romania is huge. The outdated materials among the professors and graduates are almost a rule and so the design of courses. Consequently, there are a multitude of researches without value. Because of a lack of experience of the coordinators and because of lack of documentation, the research sustained by Romanian graduates are considered in consequence of low academic quality.
         Second argument: even though they have had some remarkable achievements, Romanians have not received sufficient recognition around the world.
         MEC established the National Authority for Scientific Research (Autoritatea Naţională pentru Cercetare Ştiinţifică). This agency emerged from specific requirements designed to promote the development of a knowledge-based society. As in all Eastern European countries, the higher education system witnessed major transformations after 1990. In Romania's effort to adapt its national educational framework for the European Union, the educational system has achieved many improvements, yet there are still many difficulties to overcome.
         
         For instance, the most recent sample that occurred in 2003 year: a Romanian professor Gheorghe Benga, from the University of Cluj, was two years ahead of Nobel laureate in cellular protein channel researches for the human body. Even from 1986, the Romanian professor started to publish his researches in Biochemistry and European Journal. The American laureate, Peter Agre, who started to publish his researches two years after, didn't quote Benga and claimed the absolute priority in this field. Unfortunately, the American is considered to have the absolute priority in this discipline of the cellular membrane while the international committees never did consider the Romanian professor even as one of the pioneers in this discipline.
         This was not the first time: in medicine Nicolae Paulescu discovered insulin in 1921. Two Canadian researchers, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, working in physiology laboratory of Professor James MacLeod from the University of Toronto, published the same results in 1922. In 1923, the Canadians obtained Nobel Prize. These situations made many people skeptical about the realistic chances that someone had in order to achieve international recognition in a mid-sized country. General assessment
         
         List of universities in Romania
         Religious education in Romania
         History of Romanian education
         Romanian Revolution of 1989
         European higher education area
         Bologna process
         Vocational education

ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. It consists of 136 two-letter codes used to identify the world's major languages. These codes are a useful international shorthand for indicating languages. For example:
The ISO 639-1 list became an official standard in 2002, but had existed in draft format for some years before. The last code added was ht, representing Haitian Creole on 2003-02-26. The use of the standard was encouraged by IETF language tags, introduced in RFC 1766 in March 1995, and continued by RFC 3066 from January 2001 and RFC 4646 from September 2006. Infoterm (International Information Center for Terminology) is the registration authority for ISO 639-1 codes.
New ISO 639-1 codes are not added if an ISO 639-2 code exists, so systems that use ISO 639-1 and 639-2 codes, with 639-1 codes preferred, do not have to change existing codes.
If an ISO 639-2 code that covers a group of languages is used, it may still be obsoleted for some data by a new ISO 639-1 code.
There is no specification on treatment of macrolanguages (see ISO 639-3).

English is represented by en
German is represented by de (from the endonym Deutsch)
Japanese is represented by ja (even though its endonym is Nihongo)

The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University located at 859 Sherbrooke Street West ( 45°30′16.20″N, 73°34′38.60″W) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It is rumoured that it was part of an effort to ensure that Sir William Dawson would not leave the university. It houses collections of interest to ethnology, biology, paleontology, and mineralogy/geology. The collections were started by some of the same individuals who founded the Smithsonian and Royal Ontario Museum collections. The current director is David Green.
It is the oldest building built specifically to be a museum in North America. Although small, its striking architecture is an important example of neo-classical design. It has figured as a set, both inside and out, for movies and commercials. (See Barnum (1986) starring Burt Lancaster, Eye of the Beholder, (1999) starring Ashley Judd).

Geology (mineralogy) collection
The museum's important collection of fossils owes much of its beginning to Sir William Dawson who provided not only many of the fossils of plants from his native Nova Scotia, but procured many important specimens from around the world. Dr. Thomas Clark, for many years up until his death, was a fixture at the museum and was renowned for his pioneering work on fossils from the Burgess Shale, some of the oldest known anywhere.

Andrew Jackson Donelson (August 25, 1799 – June 26, 1871) was an American diplomat and a candidate for Vice President of the United States.
One of the three sons of Samuel and Mary Donelson, Andrew Jackson Donelson was born in Nashville, Tennessee. His younger brother, Daniel Smith Donelson, would grow up to be a Confederate brigadier general. Donelson's father died when Donelson was about five. When his mother remarried, Donelson moved to the Hermitage, the home of his aunt, Rachel Donelson Jackson and her husband, Donelson's namesake, future President of the United States Andrew Jackson.
Donelson attended Cumberland College in Nashville and then joined the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating second in his class in 1820. His two years as an officer in the United States Army were spent as aide-de-camp to Andrew Jackson, by then a major general, as Jackson campaigned against the Seminoles in Florida. With the campaign over, Donelson resigned his commission and studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. A year later, he started practicing law in Nashville and, less than a year after that, had married his first cousin, Emily Tennessee Donelson.
Donelson assisted his uncle during the 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns and, in 1829, he became Jackson's private secretary when his uncle was inaugurated as President of the United States. His wife Emily served as White House hostess and unofficial First Lady of the United States. Donelson remained Jackson's private secretary throughout his administration. During his stay in Washington, Donelson had his new home, Poplar Grove (later renamed Tulip Grove), constructed on the land he had inherited from his father, which was adjacent to the Hermitage.
In 1836, Tulip Grove was completed. Shortly afterward Emily died of tuberculosis, leaving four young children. Donelson moved back to Nashville after Jackson's retirement the following year, where he helped Jackson sustain the Democratic party in a variety of ways for the next seven years. These services included writing newspaper editorials defending Democratic principles and helping Democratic candidates campaign for state, local, and national offices. In 1841, Donelson married another cousin, Elizabeth (Martin) Randolph, with whom he would have eight more children. Elizabeth Martin Randolph was a widow of Meriwether Lewis Randolph, a son of Martha Jefferson Randolph, and a grandson of Thomas Jefferson).
In 1844, Donelson was instrumental in helping James K. Polk win the Democratic presidential nomination over Martin Van Buren and other more notable candidates. President John Tyler appointed Donelson chargé d'affaires of the United States to the Republic of Texas, probably hoping that Jackson's nephew would help persuade former Tennessee politician Sam Houston to endorse the United States' annexation of Texas. Donelson was successful in this endeavor, and Texas joined the United States on December 29, 1845. He was then made Minister to Prussia in 1846, a position he would hold until President Polk's Democratic administration was replaced by the Whig administration of Zachary Taylor in 1849 (Donelson's constant complaining about his personal finances and desire for a higher salary probably had more to do with the change than partisan differences.). Between September 1848 and November 1849, during the time of the Frankfurt Parliament, he was the U.S. envoy to the short-lived revolutionary government of Germany in Frankfurt.
In 1851, Donelson became the editor of the Washington Union, a Democratic newspaper. However, as sectionalism became the dominant issue of American politics, Donelson became unpopular with several factions within the Democratic party, who forced him out in 1852. In 1856, Donelson was nominated as the running mate of former President Millard Fillmore on the American party ticket. Fillmore and Donelson managed to garner only 8 electoral votes.
In 1858, Donelson sold Tulip Grove and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He participated primarily in local politics there, although he was a delegate to the Constitutional Union party's national nominating convention, which nominated his old Tennessee nemesis, John Bell, as its presidential candidate. During the Civil War, Donelson was harassed by both sides of the conflict. He also lost two of his sons in the war. During Reconstruction, he split time between his Memphis home and his plantation in Bolivar County, Mississippi. In his correspondence with his wife, he groused about the need to pay wages to African American workers who had once been slaves. He died at the Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.