[6] Critics charged that these "experiments" had introduced "anachronism and chaos" into the Romanian educational system, perturbing both pupils and teachers,[7] and Andronescu's reputed inability to justify and sustain her decisions earned her the nickname of Abramburica (a coined term mixing abracadabra and brambura, "aimless").

[8] During the latter campaign, she charged the incumbent National Liberal Party (PNL) government with immorality, corruption and incompetence regarding education, and touted her 2001–2003 efforts to introduce computers into classrooms and build gyms; these two programmes were themselves criticised at the end of 2004, after the PSD had been voted out of office, for the computerisation effort's weak results and for both having been undertaken after no-bid contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

In May 2009, the authors of the nationwide high school admission test made two errors when writing the questions, prompting the resignation of two Education Ministry employees,[12] and contributing to worries among PSD leaders that Andronescu was damaging their party's image.

[14] That July, she announced her ministry would no longer issue diplomas for the private Spiru Haret University (and might seek its outright closure), claiming that institution had failed to undergo accreditation and authorisation for its offerings.

[15] This action reportedly displeased PSD president Mircea Geoană for not being cleared with him in advance;[13] the university itself took the government to court and won the right to continue operations.

[19] Boc's move followed rising discontent with her within the PDL, whose members Ioan Oltean and Radu Berceanu suggested that Andronescu herself was trying to politicise the educational process.

[20] The PDL also suggested that Andronescu's proposals aimed at sabotaging Boc's own reform project, which the party claimed was addressing the fundamental issues.

[23][24][25] That November, integru.org, a Romanian website run by anonymous academics and focused on plagiarism detection charged that for a 2003 article, Andronescu and her co-author had lifted significant passages without attribution from three other works.

[1] Following the resignation of Valentin Popa after a controversy regarding the teaching of the Romanian language in areas with Hungarian ethnic majorities, Andronescu was nominated for a fourth time to occupy the Education Ministry.

She was removed from office on 2 August 2019 by prime minister Viorica Dăncilă following a controversial statement that "young girls should know better than to get in cars with strangers" regarding the kidnapping of Alexandra Măceșanu and Luiza Melencu.