one of the most important indicators for the mphe is the number of foreign students . in the analyzed period , the minimum number of foreign students in the higher education system , including medicine and pharmacy was recorded in 1975 , while the maximum number of foreign students in mphe was reached in 1982 , when 8177 students were enrolled , one year before the highest number of foreign students in romania : 16962 . on average , there were 5739 foreign students enrolled in mphe meaning more than 52% of the foreign students coming for studies in romania were attending mphe . when calculating the proportion of the foreign students from mphe in the total number of foreign students from romania , an increasing and continuous trend is easily traceable for the 15 years analyzed , from as low as 34.2% in 1975 to as high as 74.9% in 1989 .
this trend is even more important after 1982 , when the share of foreign students in the total students enlisted in the romanian higher education was starting to decrease .
another important aspect to be emphasized is that the great majority of foreign students coming to mphe in romania were male students . on average
81.7% of foreign students entering mphe were male , consistent with the fact that in the entire higher education , 85.4% of the foreign students were male
another important indicator is the total number of foreign freshmen . on average , there were 1438 foreign freshmen in mphe and 3219 in the entire higher education ( almost 50% of all the freshmen between 19751989 were enrolled in mphe ) .
most foreign freshmen were registered in the year 1977 ( 2110 students ) , while in the entire higher education there were 4985 freshmen in 1980 . in the analyzed period ,
the years 1975 , 1986 and 1987 were the only ones with under 1000 freshmen registered .
the freshmen from mphe amounted to a maximum of 74% ( 1988 ) from all the registered freshmen in the higher education , and as low as 34% in 1981 .
for the situation of graduates the available data was for the period 19741988 . on average , there were 1572 graduates in the higher education and 700 in mphe ( up to 1249 in 1985 from a minimum of 61 graduates in 1975 ) . in the romanian higher education
there were 7 years with over 2000 foreign graduates ( 19811988 ) and six years with more than 1000 foreign graduates of mphe ( 1982 to 1987 ) , which shows an almost perfect overlapping proving that mphe in the 1980s was the most important type of higher education from the point of view of foreign graduates . on average
almost 5% of the total number of graduates of higher education in romania were foreign graduates , and 38% of them studied in mphe ( maximum 64.1% in 1988 , and no less than 17.7% in 1975 ) . during 19821989 , over 50% of graduates came from mphe .
basically , in the 1980s the prestige of romanian higher education in terms of foreign graduates was provided by mphe .
during communism , mphe functioned in the structure of two types of institutions : general and specific . among those specific
there were two types : institutes of medicine and institutes of medicine and pharmacy ( medical and pharmaceutical ) .
in timisoara , and for a brief period also in iasi , there was only an institute of medicine . in bucharest , cluj - napoca , iasi and trgu mures functioned institutes of medicine and pharmacy .
in addition to these institutions , in 1970 a faculty of general medicine ( medicin general ) , later faculty of medicine , was established at the university of craiova .
the university of craiova was the only institution that hosted medicine education outside specific institutions .
let us mention that all these institutios were active not only in the most important higher education centers , but they also had a location important for the regional health care system , taking into account the role of dispersion and simultaneously , regional attraction of specialized staff .
the most important institution for mphe in terms of attracting foreign students , was the institute of medicine and pharmacy from bucharest , which had enrolled an average of 1872 students , followed by the institute of medicine and pharmacy of cluj - napoca with its 1117 students , institute medicine and pharmacy of iai registering 1096 students , institute of medicine of timioara with 984 students and the faculty of medicine from the university of craiova with 650 students . in the period under review ,
the institute of medicine and pharmacy trgu mures did not attract foreign students except for two years in 1975 and 1976 , when there were 83 and respectively , 236 foreign students recorded .
the year 1981 was the most important in attracting foreign students for the institute of medicine and pharmacy of bucharest : there were 2640 foreign students registered . for the other institutions
the corresponding indicator was also attained in the 1980s : in 1981 in cluj - napoca ( 1760 foreign students ) , in 1982 in iasi ( 1606 ) , in 1983 in craiova ( 1037 ) and in 1985 in timisoara ( 1349 ) .
worth to point out is that between 1979 and 1985 over 2000 foreign students were registered each year in mphe in bucharest . as for the number of foreign freshmen , the institute of medicine and pharmacy from bucharest attracted on average 392 students ( maximum 540 in 1984 ) , cluj - napoca 303 ( maximum 552 in 1978 ) , iasi 287 ( maximum 365 in 1979 ) , craiova 198 ( maximum 338 in 1983 ) and timisoara 196 ( maximum 273 in 1981 and 1982 ) .
we can easily observe the general trend of the increased number of foreign students in all institutions from 1975 to the beginning of 1980 , followed by a decrease and then a new increase for the last two years of communism .
another interesting aspect is the number of foreign students attracted by mphe compared to those of the higher education centers in which they are based .
thus , in bucharest , the most important centre of higher education in the country , 46.47% of foreign students were enrolled in mphe , lower than in timisoara which had 57.76% .
the same value was 61.30% for iai , 65.51% for cluj - napoca , but much lower than for craiova , where foreign students were in an impressive share of 92.80% .
the situation was not so much changed regarding the proportion of foreign freshmen in mphe from the total number of foreign freshmen : 41.34% in bucharest , 46.07% in timisoara , 61.73% in iai , 62.21% in cluj - napoca and again a big share in craiova , 90% .
we also have a situation of the countries of origin for the foreign students in mphe , but only for the year 1988/1989 .
a top 10 of such countries is the following : 1155 foreign students came from greece , 966 from syria , 913 from israel , 480 from jordan , 466 from iran , 336 from germany ( federal republic ) , 324 from sudan , 260 from lebanon , 171 from yemen and 141 from yugoslavia .
like most of the examples mentioned , many other countries of origin for the foreign students were from the african continent and oil - rich arab countries , in the context of good political and economical cooperation with romania . among the faculties of mphe , faculty of medicine attracted more foreign students than the other faculties , followed by the faculty of dentistry and the faculty of pharmacy .
for example , at the institute of medicine and pharmacy in bucharest the situation between 19751989 was the following : on average 1164 foreign students were enrolled in the faculty of medicine , 25 at the department of pediatrics , 602 in the faculty of dentistry , 89 in the faculty of pharmacy and 21 in the faculty of military medicine . for a close view on the statistics regarding the total number of foreign students at a faculty level ,
three tables were prepared , one for each of the most important faculties in mphe : medicine , dentistry and pharmacy .
regarding the data in the last table , the following mentions need to be made : the faculty of medicine was merged with dentistry in timisoara starting with 1986 and also that under the faculty of medicine , different specializations could be covered ( medicine , dentistry , pediatrics ) like in craiova . in order to counter the changes in the structure while assessing in the long term the number of foreign students in mphe faculties , we have presented all the data , but made calculations for an average corresponding to 19751985 , a period safe from 
statistical noise. the statistical data from this table and also from the followings , show almost in every centre of mphe an increase in the number of students in the last two years of communism , after the  fall from 1987 .
when assessing the data from the table above , it is important , again , to note the changes in the structure of faculties of mphe : starting with 1986 , the faculty of pharmacy and the faculty of dentistry were merged in bucharest and cluj - napoca , while in timisoara , as already mentioned , dentistry was merged with medicine , and in iasi with the faculty of pharmacy .
these notes are important also for understanding the data in the following table : when re - focusing on the national level from the local level , the importance of mphe in attracting foreign students in the romanian higher education is easy to demonstrate .
after 1948 , the development of higher education was at all levels important , including attracting foreign students .
the most successful type of higher education in this regard was mphe . regarding the main reasons which led to this situation we mention the low tuition fees and cost of living in romania , the need for currency of the romanian state , especially in the 1980s and the prestige of romanian higher education .
maximum number of foreign students enrolled in higher education was achieved in 1981 , 16962 foreign students and for mphe in 1982 , 8177 foreign students . on average , there were 5739 foreign students enrolled in mphe meaning that more than 52% of the foreign students in romania were attending mphe , all based on a continuously increasing trend during the 15 years analysed . as for the gender representation , on average
81.7% of foreign students entering mhpe were male , consistent with the fact that in the entire higher education , 85.4% of the foreign students were male . on average , there were 1438 foreign freshmen in mphe and 3219 in the entire higher education ( almost 50% of all the freshmen between 19751989 were enrolled in mphe ) , while 700 were graduates of mphe ( 1572 graduates were in the romanian higher education ) . on average
almost 5% of the total number of graduates of higher education in romania were foreign graduates and 38% of them studied in mphe .
the most important institution of mphe was the institute of medicine and pharmacy bucharest , both structurally and statistically . on average ,
bucharest attracted 1872 foreign students , followed by its counterparts in cluj - napoca ( 1117 ) and iasi ( 1096 ) . in terms of attracting foreign students in the romanian higher education ,
craiova amounted an impressive proportion of over 90% of the enrolled foreign students in mphe , with important shares also for other centers of mphe . in bucharest ,
the most important higher education centre of the country , over 46% of foreign students were included in mphe , highlighting once again the leading role of this type of higher education in attracting foreign students in romania .
mphe was the most important type of romanian higher education in terms of attraction of foreign students .
as new documents will be available , new analyses on the issues already highlighted in this article will contribute to a better knowledge of the development of romanian higher education and mphe in the communist period .
 after 1948 the romanian higher education entered a period of important developments , controlled by the communist regime , which meant thathigher educationinstitutions autonomy was severely obstructed , while politicalpurges affected the teaching staff and students alike . 
 nevertheless , new types of higher education were introduced and new institutions of higher education and specializations were established . 
 the number of students and graduates increased accordingly . also , after 1975 , the number of foreign students in romanian higher education registered a significant increase mainly in medicine and pharmacy . 
 more than half of foreign students attracted by the romanian higher education were studying medicine and pharmacy . 
 many interesting aspects of this situation are presented in this article : reasons for this attraction , statistics of total number of students , number of freshmen , number of graduates and the contribution of each institution of medicine and pharmacy higher education in attracting the foreign students . 
The number of foreign students enlisted
The number of freshmen enlisted
The number of graduates
Institutions of MPHE and their number of students
Conclusions