Румънският университет, спекулативен балон? Реформите – от либерализирането до неолиберализма

This paper analyses the changes of the Romanian academic field in the context of social and political transformation after 1989, focusing on the institutional and economic implications of the changes. First, the author examines the conditions for imposition of a market logic in the academic space through a series of reforms aiming at the political liberalization of institutions, their democratization and their integration into European structures. Structural changes involve both legislative initiatives, shifting boundaries between public and private universities, hierarchies of fields of study, as well as the relationship between internal and external markets of higher education. Secondly, the article analyzes the different logics – commercial, managerial and professional – at play in this field. The analysis is based on the testimony of actors involved in the reforms: their promoters, as well as their opponents or those subjected to their consequences. Moreover, the article examines the contributions of sociologists and social scientists to the implementation of those transformations and to the assessment of their effects.