The Quest for Quality in Higher Education: Is There Any Place Left for Equity and Access?

Over the past two decades Romanian higher education has been the subject of numerous policy reforms aiming to increase the overall quality and performance of higher education institutions (HEIs): two comprehensive laws on education and several second-order legislative acts intended to transform the sphere of higher education into a modern system of teaching and research. Funding was one of the most important mechanisms used to stimulate universities in the direction of improved performance. Throughout the article elements of student equity and access which operate within the framework of quality assessment are highlighted and the impact of this framework on the funding process is evaluated. The article mainly focuses on public HEIs because, unlike private institutions which do not rely on state funding, public universities are particularly sensitive to shifts in the funding policies. Following a brief section outlying the theoretical framework used in the paper, two distinct but related subjects are discussed. First, the early efforts undertaken by