EN
This article sets to analyze the manpower planning approach in respect of the Romanian higher education system during communism. The arguments used intend to demonstrate that long-term planning, although commonly used in the context of demand economy, was not a reliable instrument in education. Archival research has outlined the connections and the variations between long-term ‘cadre’ plans and higher education outcomes, in an attempt to better assess the feasibility of manpower planning in a socialist economy. The empirical analysis confirms the theoretical approach used by Jan Sadlak in the 1980s, but also provides an additional outlook on the practical and conceptual limitations of centralized normative planning.