An overview of the academic level among EU countries. A cluster analysis approach

The modernization of higher education is a complex process and occupies a priority place on the agenda of concerns both at European level and at the level of each member state of the European Union (EU). In this paper we present the results of the analysis of the main aspects of post-integration modernization of higher education in Romania, compared to the evolution in other Member States in the same period, from the perspective of five indicators: expenditure per student, percentage of GDP allocated to higher education, graduates per thousand inhabitants and professor per student’s ratio. In order to achieve the proposed objective, we have carried out a research and a cluster analysis of data from secondary sources of available information, respectively reports of the European Commission and various statistical reports that will be mentioned throughout the article.