ROMANIA. Legal issues

1993: QA/ authorization & accreditation granted by a National Council, reporting to Parliament (Law)

1995: autonomy of universities guaranteed by Law

1998: Convention of Lisbon ratified / recognition of HE qualifications

2004: special Law on HE (Bologna Process: 3 cycles, ECTS, DS, QA)

2005: Law on Quality in Education

Bologna Declaration signed in 1999

Reform initiated at institutional level

ECTS: introduced in 1996 by 4 university (accumulation & transfer, all students and all specializations)

credit transfer experienced in Erasmus (from 1998)

generalized by all state universities & recommended by the Ministry (2000), compulsory by law (2004)

Mobility of students: 1000/yr (1998) to >3000/yr (2005)

Mobility of staff: >300/yr (2005)

D.S. : 2004-introduced by some universities in 2004

from 2006: delivery is free & compulsory by law

Reform activated at national level

by the National Council of Rectors

2004: special Law on HE (Strategy of reform is a European one, i.e. Bologna Process)

3 cycles: Bc. (Licence),M. , Dr. (3+2+3)

(medicine, pharmacy, architecture: integrated M.)

(Bc. in engineering, law: 4 years)

ECTS, DS recognized as compulsory by law and detailed by Orders of the Minister of Education

2005: special Law on Quality in Education (authorization & accreditation, but also excellence, competition, ranking)

Measuring with credits

Relative definition: credits are relative proportions of workload requested by courses*

Absolute definition: 1 year = 1500-1600 h = 60 credits

European Screening/ TUNING Project

Range MeanWeeks/year 34-40 37Hours/week 36-44 40Hours/year 1200-1800 1500Hours/credit 20-30 25

*useful for management of study plans, new curricula

A Romanian Experience of Reforming HE System

Vision: opening to European co-operation

Commitment (1996): 4 universities formed a Consortium and declared their commitment to launch the Reform, beginning with …ECTS

Favorable conditions: Socrates/Erasmus Program, one of the 4 involved rectors became Minister of Education (1998), a loan of World Bank for development of infrastructure of HE

Realistic solutions: ECTS introduced from the beginning as an accumulation system, clear rules & definitions

Innovations for obtaining support: ECTS replaced the existing rules on student activity, “year repetition” abandoned (students said yes), over passing the normal duration of studies is taxed (institutions said yes)

Regulating an institutional credit system

Introduction* explains with measuring workload is useful for curricula design and for students

Reference*: ECTS. EU Guide

Clear definitions*: normal workload, credit allocation, award, accumulation, transfer

Agreed conventions* on allocation (60 c/y), awarding (all credits for passed exams), publicity (of detailed study plans), transferability (L.A., ToR)

Measures for implementing: credit allocation in study plans, no repetition of passed examinations, more flexible curricula, course descriptions

Audit and monitoring: ECTS coordinators/counsellors

*also in a national credit system description

See

www.politice.ro/ects

for the institutional rules on ECTS as an accumulation system at the

National School of Political Studies and Public Administration,

Bucharest, ROMANIA

Cornel RADU

From the EU Team of ECTS Counsellors

Bologna Process Promoters

rcornel@chem.unibuc.ro