The Universitaria Consortium (CU), the largest association of universities in Romania in terms of the number of students and the number of teaching staff, and which brings together nine universities from all regions of the country (University of Bucharest, "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași, West University of Timișoara, Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest, University of Craiova, "Dunărea de Jos" University of Galați, "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu and "Ovidius" University of Constanța) met in Timișoara between 3-5 April to debate current issues in the fields of higher education and research. To underline, once again, the role and place of the Universitaria Consortium in the ecosystem of higher education and research, we mention that all nine universities in the CU are present in the Metaranking published by the Ministry of Education and Research, in the top positions of this ranking. Thus, in the top ten universities at the national level, CU is present with five universities, the first two places being occupied year after year by universities from the Consortium.
By consensus, the rectors of the member universities of the CU approved the request of the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova to become a strategic partner of the CU in order to strengthen existing academic and scientific collaborations, develop joint projects and contribute to the excellence of university education, thus joining the Moldova State University, a higher education institution that has the status of an associate member of the CU.
Following discussions held on specialized panels, the following ideas relevant to the development of higher education in Romania were reflected.
1. The universities in the Universitaria Consortium appreciate that the new national legal framework in the field of external evaluation of the quality of education in higher education simplifies and clarifies the processes carried out in this field, and requests the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) to develop and adopt as soon as possible, in order to facilitate the external evaluation processes necessary to be carried out, a series of documents related to the specific quality standards for master's degree university study programs, for university study programs in the form of organization with reduced frequency and distance learning, for postgraduate study fields, for bachelor's degree university study programs Early education and Primary education pedagogy etc. CU also requests the Ministry of Education and Research (MEC) to amend the legislation in force in such a way that the periodic evaluation processes for maintaining the accreditation of university programs and fields of study are carried out once every 7 years, to draft the necessary legislation for the organization of university master's degree programs in the form of distance learning and also requests the MEC that the budgeted places remaining unoccupied following the admission process, at the bachelor's and master's cycles, cannot be transformed through equivalence into budgeted places at the master's or doctoral cycles and that these be redistributed to the universities that, following the admission process, occupied places with a fee.
2. We believe that the MEC and ARACIS must bring the fees related to external evaluation processes to reasonable values for higher education institutions.
3. We request the MEC to adopt as soon as possible the secondary legislation necessary to implement the provisions of the Law on Higher Education No. 199/2023, as subsequently amended and supplemented, regarding microcertifications (Article 185, paragraph (6)), postgraduate study programs (Article 74, paragraph (3)), as well as the recognition of credits between higher education cycles (Article 51, paragraph (2)), as well as the financing of initiatives to develop good practices and skills in the use of AI in the academic environment, for example by integrating a new objective in the competition for the institutional development fund (FDI).
4. The consortium brings to the attention of the MEC the importance of the ministry allocating a budget for internationalization in the university budgets and financial support from the relevant ministry for Visiting programs, with a research and academic component, possibly also with a Diaspora component, to attract international human resources.
5.CU proposes that the evaluation and classification of universities, carried out based on Government Decision No. 138/2024, be followed by differentiated funding, explicitly made from additional resources to the basic, additional or complementary funding, through the annual allocation of a budget for research.
6.CU has as its objectives both the development of inter-institutional relations and the transfer of good practices to the national higher education and research system. Thus, in order to strengthen the role and importance of the Consortium, two directions of collaboration are proposed for the research area, namely the mutual opening and sharing of access to the equipment and research infrastructure existing in higher education institutions and, respectively, the financing from own resources or from external sources of research and development projects at the university level that aim at the intention that the member universities of CU develop joint research projects, which should equally include researchers with advanced expertise, young researchers in training, and doctoral students.
7. At the systemic level, the need to review the higher education financing model was emphasized and it was decided to establish a working group, with the participation of each university in the Consortium, to analyze and substantiate the real cost per student for the fields of study found in the member universities of the Consortium. Beyond that, analyzing the financial aspects arising from the current activities of the universities, the CU proposes: a consistent supplement (minimum 25%) of institutional funding, ensuring the necessary budgetary credits for the settlements within the projects financed from the PNRR and remedying the dysfunctions in the reimbursement mechanism specific to the implementation of these projects. The current procedures have proven to be non-functional, generating frequent blockages in the settlement of transfer requests, which seriously affects the pace of implementation of the projects undertaken by the universities. Administrative simplification is required, creating a clear and predictable procedural framework, to ensure efficient and sustainable absorption of funding for digitalization and development of the academic environment. We also request support for university infrastructure projects financed through the PNRR for their completion within the contractual deadlines.
8. The debates within the panels also highlighted other areas of collaboration, such as: carrying out collective negotiations, on behalf of the consortium, of contracts concluded with the main software suppliers, harmonization between the universities in the consortium of tuition fees for bachelor's and master's degree cycles as well as of the fees for defending doctoral theses and habilitation theses, as well as the remuneration of members of the supporting committees.
9. The students present, members of the universities in the CU, debated topics of interest to them, such as: the mechanisms and procedures for granting scholarships, the activity of student representatives, the integration of artificial intelligence in the educational process, the student evaluation process, but also their more consistent involvement in the evaluation process of teaching staff, in the SAS activity or the integration of students with special educational needs. In the academic year 2025 - 2026, the aim is to implement the "Framework Methodology on Short-Term Internal Academic Mobilities of Students within the Member Universities of the Universitaria Consortium".
10. Trade union representatives addressed themes and topics on the agenda of all categories of university employees and proposed a series of measures to streamline human resources policies in higher education, such as: full application of legal salary rights, promoting the use and regulation of artificial intelligence in education, assessing the impact of professional stress, increasing the efficiency of joint committees; stimulating internal mobility between university unions.
