FCRP - Education

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A New Paradigm in Global Higher Education for Sustainable Development and Human Security
(South-East European Division of The World Academy of Art and Science – SEED, 2021-11-29) Jacobs, Garry; Ramanathan, Janani; Wolff, Ralph; Pricopie, Remus; Dominici, Piero; Zucconi, Alberto
Every institution of higher education and every government is trying to overcome the problems it faces and improve the reach, relevance, financial viability and effectivity of education. But no one is thinking globally for solutions that will be optimal from the perspective of humanity as a whole. The enormous challenges we face in education today can best be solved only by including system-wide action at the global level. A new paradigm needs to be clearly formulated, designed and implemented. This paper briefly outlines the nature and magnitude of the challenges in higher education today, and identifies promising signs of a new paradigm waiting to emerge. That will require a new kind of leadership that thinks and acts globally. Such a paradigm can make an immense contribution to addressing global problems, implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and promoting greater human security for all. Education is an essential instrument and catalyst for social transformation. At the same time, the global education system itself is in need of radical transformation to upgrade capacity, quality, reach, and relevance. The current model of education was designed at a time when knowledge was scarce, sources of knowledge were limited, classrooms were essential for knowledge dissemination, and higher education was limited to a privileged few. Today the world needs a comprehensive global strategy that makes far better use of the existing resources, utilizes the potential of Information and Communications Technology, applies innovative, learner-centred pedagogy to provide affordable, interactive, personalized, relevant, quality education for all. Such a new paradigm in global education will make it a powerful catalyst for social transformation and fulfilment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Closing the gap between museums and schools
(Sciendo, 2022-12-12) Zbuchea, Alexandra; Ivan, Loredana; Timofte, Mona Silvia; Iordan, Iulia
Museums’ roles are diversifying considering their dynamic relationships with the present-day economy, society, and communities. Nevertheless, education is the main constant marketing museums’ complex activities. An important part of the educational mission of museums is designed with and for teachers and their students. Nevertheless, these partnerships are complex and they need more understanding for designing more effective educational programs. Having this in mind, the present study analyzes the way primary-school teachers in Bucharest, Romania, interact with museums and how they use their collections as educational resources in class. The qualitative investigation implemented shows that there is a high potential for partnership and teachers need more guidance and cooperation opportunities coming from museum educators and curators.
Despre necesitatea parteneriatului dintre universitate și comunitate
(Fundatia Orient Expres, 2015) Frunzaru, Valeriu
This theoretical study addresses the partnership university – community, a reality that in Western educational area has had a history of several decades. Beyond the EU policy which requires the development of such a relationship, the mutual need for collaboration between the university and the community has begun to manifest as a result of changes in the global economy and the raise of the importance of knowledge in the development of products and services. It should be emphasized that the relationship between university and community is not restricted to economic aspects, it may approach social and civic issues as well. Moreover, we can talk about this relationship as a component of the welfare state. Although there are arguments for developing the relationship between university and community, resistance to change can be an obstacle in this regard.
European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies
(Springer Nature, 2018) Curaj, Adrian; Deca, Ligia; Pricopie, Remus
This volume presents the major outcomes of the third edition of the Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC 3) which was held on 27-29 November 2017. It acknowledges the importance of a continued dialogue between researchers and decision-makers and benefits from the experience already acquired, this way enabling the higher education community to bring its input into the 2018-2020 European Higher Education Area (EHEA) priorities. The Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC) has already established itself as a landmark in the European higher education environment. The two previous editions (17-19 October 2011, 24-26 November 2014), with approximately 200 European and international participants each, covering more than 50 countries each, were organized prior to the Ministerial Conferences, thus encouraging a consistent dialogue between researchers and policy makers. The main conclusions of the FOHE Conferences were presented at the EHEA Ministerial Conferences (2012 and 2015), in order to make the voice of researchers better heard by European policy and decision makers. This volume is dedicated to continuing the collection of evidence and research-based policymaking and further narrowing the gap between policy and research within the EHEA and broader global contexts. It aims to identify the research areas that require more attention prior to the anniversary 2020 EHEA Ministerial Conference, with an emphasis on the new issues on rise in the academic and educational community. This book gives a platform for discussion on key issues between researchers, various direct higher education actors, decision-makers, and the wider public. This book is published under an open access CC BY license.
Evaluare ex ante a impactului introducerii unui sistem centralizat de admitere în universități. Studiu de impact
(UEFISCDI Publishing House, 2022) Frunzaru, Valeriu; Oprea, Denisa Adriana; Ștefăniță, Oana
This study is an ex ante evaluation of the impact of introducing a centralized admission system in Romanian universities. It is part of the activities of the project "Quality in higher education: internationalization and databases for the development of Romanian education", implemented by the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) in partnership with the Ministry of Education, in the period 2018-2022. Starting from the conceptual and methodological framework on ex ante evaluations, the authors of this study present the problem of admission to higher education based on international comparisons and the analysis of the admission modalities in Romanian universities. The authors propose a centralized admission system, based, on the one hand, on the baccalaureate exam grades (as a selection criterion) and, on the other hand, on an online platform similar to the one used for high school admission (as a technical means). The ex-ante evaluation of this potential higher education admission system is carried out using specific methods, including semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. The impact study presents a set of conclusions on the potential impact of such a scheme and proposes recommendations for its implementation to meet the criteria of fair admission, to gain the widest possible stakeholder support and to be effective.
Explaining solidarity through metaphors: two examples from a romanian textbook
(2021) Negrea-Busuioc, Elena
Solidarity is a complex, abstract, multifaceted concept that may be unpacked and used in a variety of situations, ranging from socio-economic and political contexts to the currently salient pandemic context. Defining solidarity, either in theory or in practice, requires connections to other less abstract ideas, which are more familiar to people. In this paper, I examine the way in which the concept of solidarity is defined and explained in a Romanian social studies textbook for 6th graders. My analysis focuses on two metaphorical framings of solidarity found in the textbook, namely ‘solidarity as exchange’ and ‘solidarity as assistance’. I discuss these examples of metaphors of solidarity in the context of broader discussions surrounding the construction of the intercultural society (of which solidarity is a crucial value) in textbooks.
Exploring sources of teacher's perceived stress in Romanian pre-tertiary education
(Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, 2015) Frunzaru, Valeriu; Cicei, Cătălina
"Stress has become a widespread phenomenon in the educational system, a large number of empirical studies documenting its prevalence. This paper presents the findings of a quantitative study (N=2165) regarding the self-perceived stress of Romanian educators and teachers from pre-tertiary educational level. Based on the ten-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), our study examines the relationship between the stress experienced by teachers and various demographic, organizational and job-related variables. The findings underline the fact that no significant differences in experiencing stress are due to different background variables (such as school location, fulfilling management and union leader roles, or being a commuter), age being positively correlated with perceived stress. Associations have been reported with various workplace hazards, as well as with the satisfaction regarding different aspects of the job and professional activity, insatisfaction regarding the relationship with the students and paperwork being the strongest predictors. Starting from these results, the paper also outlines some practical measures that can be implemented in view of reducing the stress of Romanian teachers from pre-tertiary education"
High School Pupils Performance in Romania: Individual and Social Predictors
(2017) Frunzaru, Valeriu; Corbu, Nicoleta
"Studies focused on academic achievement at the high school level generally discuss individual and social predictors of school performance, rarely suggesting measures to be taken at the level of national public policies in the education field. At the same time, public policies are rarely driven by empirical research. In this context, the article analyses the results of a national survey (N= 2624) conducted in 2011 on high school pupils in Romania concerning the individual and the social factors that influence school performance. A regression model shows that class attendance and gender are the strongest predictors of school performance, closely followed by parents’ education and type of enrolment in a hierarchy of influences on pupils’ grades. Other aspects are related to parents’ migration abroad and peers’ behavior. These findings are further used to make recommendations for public policies in education. "
Premises of Inclusive Access and Success of Roma People in the Romanian Higher Education
(Springer, 2015) Cismaru, Diana Maria; Fiț, Cristina; Gologan, Delia
This paper builds an overview of the context for implementing equity public policies targeting the Roma youth in Romania, with a focus on the specially designed study grants (reserved places—It refers to study grants offered specially for the Roma young people. They pass the same type of competition for admision at the study program however they only compete with the other Roma potential students accessing these “reserved places”, thus increasing their admission chances. After admission, they never pay for tuition as it is coverd by these study grants from the public budget. We will hereon refer to them as “reserved places”.) for this category of students. In order to determine the impact of present policies and recommend further steps forward, the paper revisits previous studies on this issue and analyzes the existing Romanian regulations on the subject. Furthermore, the paper identifies the difficulties these young Roma persons encounter at higher education level and the factors that supplementary impact on their early dropout. Young Roma people are discouraged to enter higher education by cultural factors such as poor background, lack of family support, traditional role models, but also a difficult integration in the educational community. Their situations are differentiated regionally and, in many cases, participation to education proves to be more a cultural challenge than an academic one. In this challenging context, the paper discusses the implementation of various equity policies addressing Roma people at higher education level. In sum, a comprehensive and coherent, long term approach on the issue is needed.
Science meets metaphor: Teaching and communicating about abstract concepts in Romanian science textbooks
(2022) Negrea-Busuioc, Elena; Ștefăniță, Oana; Guiu, Gabriela
Metaphors and analogies are efficient and attractive tools used in science teaching to explain ab-stract ideas in simpler, familiar terms. Science textbook authors and teachers rely on metaphors and analo-gies to explain abstract scientific concepts and convey them to young learners. In this paper, we discussa corpus of metaphorical expressions found in Romanian physics and chemistry textbooks for second-ary education (grades 6-8), and classified based on target domains (i.e., the core scientific conceptspresented in the unit lessons of the analyzed textbooks) and source domains (i.e., the more concrete,more familiar concepts used to explain scientific concepts from the analyzed textbooks). Furthermore,we explore the way in which the identified and annotated metaphors may provide the basis for under-standing core concepts from physics (e.g., electricity in terms of ‘water flowing’) and chemistry (e.g.,electron shells as ‘field track lanes’). This study is part of a larger research project which aims is to ex-amine how metaphors and analogies used in Romanian science textbooks are understood and misun-derstood by young learners and what (mis-) understanding complex scientific ideas might mean forpupils’ preparedness to make sense of the world we live in and, ultimately, for their future engagementwith and interest in science.
Self-perceived Occupational Prestige among Romanian Teaching Staff: Organisational Explicative Factors
(National School of Political Science and Public Administration. Faculty of Management, 2015) Frunzaru, Valeriu; Dumitriu, Diana Luiza
Most studies discuss occupational prestige by stressing out the macro-social aspects related to specific social stratification models. This paper aims to address the impact of organizational aspects on how teachers perceive the prestige of their occupational group, moving the focus on the micro-social context of their daily activity. The way teaching staff evaluate the social prestige of their profession fulfils normative and motivational functions and is, hence, reflected in how they actually perform their professional roles, serving both explicative and prospective purposes. In trying to identify the main factors that can explain the self-perceived level of occupational prestige among educators and teachers, we conducted a national level study among Romanian teachers (N=2165) from preschool to high school educational stages. Within the explicative model (R²=0.38), we were able to group the factors in three main categories: material conditions, bureaucratic and relational aspects. The findings reveal that teachers’ involvement in bureaucratic activities such as elaborating different reports, as well as a lower level of satisfaction regarding the relation they have with students, parents and representatives of the school's management end up decreasing the self-perceived occupational prestige. Our study lays emphasis on the fact that organizational factors influence teachers' selfperceived prestige and, thus, can affect the overall quality of the educational act. Therefore, to improve this, a greater involvement of national and local authorities in providing better material conditions in schools, in supporting the debureaucratization of the educational system and re-evaluating the role of teacher-student-parent communication triad is needed.
The Impact of Parents’ Work Migration on the Social, Communication and Educational Experiences of Left-Behind Adolescents
(2022) Udrea, Georgiana; Guiu, Gabriela
"Parental work migration can pose important risks for adolescents, such as joining inappropriate peer-groups, poor results in education or school drop-out. It can also facilitate positive changes in young people’s behaviour, as many become aware of the sacrifices their parents make to provide them with a better lifestyle and education and behave responsibly in return. Given that the literature highlights both negative and positive transformations related to parents’ migration, our aim is to address the impact of migration on adolescents left behind in rural Romania from their own perspective. We focus on teenagers’ experiences of separation from their mother, father or both, in different situations (family life, communication and rela-tionships, caring and concern for others, school achievements, future migration plans). Young people’s agency – their capacity to self-educate and organise themselves to perform well at school and in everyday activities following parental migration – is less studied in Romania. Thus, in addition to making the reality of these adolescents better known, our approach provides information that can be turned into policy solutions aimed at improving their life quality."
The Multiple Impact of Education Gaps in Romania
(Springer, 2019) Cismaru, Diana Maria; Corbu, Nicoleta
This contribution discusses the potential consequences of education gaps in Romania in the frame of change in the last 25 years, a frame that includes European integration and the strategic goals set for Europe 2020. The theoretical background is mainly functional, conceiving that the education system is one of the core systems that provide the basis for a nation’s development. Using quantitative data from institutional sources, such as Eurostat and the UNESCO data bank, the present research identifies education gaps at several levels: between urban and rural areas, regions of development, social categories. The consequences of these gaps in the future will be dramatic because education outcomes have an impact on multiple sectors, such as employability, work force quality, quality of life in the long term, and the welfare of the entire society. This chapter has been prepared with financial support granted in the project “State of the Nation. Designing an innovative instrument for evidence-based policy-making” (SIPOCA 11, MySMIS 118305), which is co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity 2014–2020.
Why IAU?
(Springer, 2021) Pricopie, Remus
We all know that evaluation is a sophisticated science. However, when we talk about celebrating 70 years of the International Association of Universities (IAU), the word “sophisticated” gets an even deeper meaning. How do we evaluate the activity of a global organization, founded in 1950 by UNESCO, whose mission it is to be the voice of universities worldwide and the main defender of the two fundamental academic values: (i) academic freedom and (ii) university autonomy? Naturally, an anniversary is always an occasion to look back, just as it is natural to look ahead.

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