Romania’s government on Wednesday withdrew operating licenses from four private universities, citing the poor quality of their educational offering. Last year the authorities closed six such institutions.

The government has also decided that 135 study programs organized by another 33 universities, most of them private, must close in the next university year, which starts in September.

Closure of the colleges will affect around a thousand of students, professors and administrative workers, according to the media.

Official data show that around 450,000 students are enrolled in Romanian universities every year, with some 110,000 of them attending 37 recognised private universities.

Most of them opened since the 1990s, and some issue what are seen as dubious academic qualifications, at the same time as making big profits by enrolling vast numbers of students.

There is growing concern that the educational system in Romania is declining in general, with cheating at exams, violence in schools, teachers’ lack of motivation and under-financing among the many problems.

Since 1989 there have been about 20 different education ministers, and while each has argued for educational reforms, their differing visions of how to improve the system have only added to the confusion.