Today, I listened to President Obama’s commencement speech at Rutgers University. It is a speech about virtue and vices, about knowledge and ignorance, about honor and its absence in political world, about decisions. It is so inspirational that only narrow-minded people would say it is about politics. No, it is about inspiring, strengthening the spirit of the American youth, at least, some of them, those that are privileged to study there.

I choose to make this video recommendation about the university and its community, not about Obama and his rhetorical abilities. And I did that because the reality is that no European continental university will ever find the proud of its members and its alumni like the American universities. I don’t have an answer for this: why most students fail to feel they are part of an academic community, with certain values and ideas. What I do know is why Romanian universities are unable to reach a higher level of quality in teaching, research ...