Spiru Haret University in Romania

The Spiru Haret University is a private university in Bucharest, Romania, founded in 1991.

In 2009 enrollment was reported as 311,928 students. Referring to the number of its students, a Romanian newspaper mistakenly called it the largest university in the world. It is the second-largest private university in the world, after Islamic Azad University (with 1.3 million students).

Although it received accreditation from Romania's National Council of Academic Evaluation in 2002, step by step its accreditations were canceled for a large number of specializations. Also, there are many voices which dispute the level of the education offered.The scandal peaked in the summer of 2009, when the way license diplomas are obtained becomes the object of an inquiry of the Romanian public prosecutors.

A number of Romanian newspapers have called the Spiru Haret University "a diploma mill" (literally translated, "a diplomas factory"). This viewpoint has been confirmed by the Austrian Der Standard and by the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The German Consulate in Romania (Timişoara) mentioned worries in respect to the legal situation of the university in its press review.The French journal Le Monde has confirmed the viewpoint of the quoted newspapers.Some English language sources (e.g. from the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei and Radio Romania International) express the same view. Therefore, the Spiru Haret University is increasingly considered in Romania and outside it as a diploma mill. Its lawyers seek to circumvent Romanian education laws, and this implied the consequence that new laws are discussed by the Romanian Department of Education, Research and Innovation, which may lead to the prohibition of all Spiru Haret's activities.