Academic Rankings - Are Romanian Universities Competitive?

The nowadays globalization process leads to increasing competitive pressures on higher education institutions, in particular related to their position on global university league tables, for which their research performance currently is almost exclusively the measure. There is no doubt that the arrival on the scene of global classifications and rankings of universities has changed the world of higher education. Since the emergence of global rankings, universities have been unable to avoid national and international comparisons, and this has caused changes in the way universities function. In many strategies of the universities one may find the goal of obtaining a better position in some international rankings. Thus, this paper aims to emphasize some features of the relation existing between rankings and the competitiveness of universities, taking into account the fact that Romanian universities are not to be found in the top 500 of the best universities of the world.