Members of the Romanian Alliance of Technical Universities - ARUT, represented by rectors and vice-rectors, participated to a working meeting at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca on 22-23 November 2018. At the sessions of the works also participated prof. eng. Ioan Ştefan Groza, PhD - State Secretary within the Ministry of National Education, prof. eng. Claudia Popescu, PhD - President of CNFIS, Ionuţ Stanamir - Executive Director of Romanian Commercial Bank, Reinhard Schuelke - Representative of "Wiley Researcher Academy", prof. Ioan Dumitrache, PhD - President and prof. eng. Radu Munteanu - Romanian Coalition for Engineering Education - "CREDING".
The subjects on the agenda were as follows:
Following the discussions and the debate on the above topics, the ARUT members decided to submit to the Ministry of National Education, for analysis, the project of restructuring of the engineering studies cycles which aims at better correlation of the Romanian higher education system with the European one and with labor market requirements. Modifications are proposed for the duration of the studies for the three cycles of bachelor’s degree, master and doctoral degrees, the titles and qualifications obtained, as well as the reduction of the number of study programs in the bachelor areas.
It was agreed that the Directors of Doctoral Studies Councils from the ARUT member universities should develop a model / template for the elaboration of the Internal PhD Assessment Report, a report to be applied in a unitary manner. Proposals for modifying / removing performance indicators used for the evaluation of doctoral studies areas that are judged to be irrelevant or impossible to determine with accuracy and which may lead to errors or distortions in the proper conduct of the course evaluation process.
The meeting also set the details of the collaboration with the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), signing in this regard the "Strategic Partnership Protocol ARUT - BCR", which specifies the objectives and directions of cooperation in the field of education and research between the two associative structures.
ARUT asks the MEN to take into account the real demand of the Romanian labor market when allocating the tuition figure for the academic year 2019/2020 and allocating the grants financed from the state budget for the doctoral studies to the Romanian labor market, considering that today there is a huge deficit of specialists in the field of engineering sciences.
ARUT calls on the Ministry of National Education to take all necessary steps to repeal / amend the provisions of Article 15 of the EGO 90/ 2017 on "the obligation to reduce by 10% the payments made in 2018 for the goods and services related to the maintenance and functioning of the institution" given that all member universities, and not only, face particularly serious problems, being virtually impossible to ensure the payment of all utilities, goods and services of strict necessity for the functioning of the institutions. Unanimously, universities have found that this is mainly due to the considerable increases in utility tariffs (gas, water, electricity, sanitation, etc.) in 2018 and, at the same time, the rise in prices and tariffs applied to the acquisition of goods and services, correlated with the increase in the minimum wage on the economy.
ARUT also expresses its surprise and dissatisfaction with the Romanian Government's reduction by 198 million lei of the budget allocated to MEN, given that the universities did not receive the necessary funds to pay the salary for the year 2018 and those remaining from the year past, in accordance with EGO 20/2016 and Law 85/2016, as well as with the decisions of the courts.
ARUT President Rector |
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Mihnea COSTOIU
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Vasile ȚOPA |
Dan CAȘCAVAL |
Radu Sorin VĂCĂREANU |