Today, at the Western University of Timișoara, there was a conference dedicated to the presentation of the results of the new comparative study carried out by UVT on the financing of higher education in Timișoara - Cluj-Napoca - Iași, period 2012 - 2020.
During the conference, the latest data obtained by UVT researchers about the public budgets allocated for the university centers of Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca and Iași in the last 10 years were presented, as well as references to trends on the horizon of future developments in this ecosystem formed by public decision-makers , central and local public administration, representative community stakeholders, academics and researchers, students and the general public alike, involved and interested in the significant predictors of future developments.
Some of the main debated ideas, resulting from the UVT comparative study:
- In the last 10 years, the funding gap meant that for the Cluj-Napoca university center a budget of 200 million euros more than for Timișoara was allocated. This is felt in the development trends of the entire community (GDP per inhabitant in Cluj county increasing and exceeding GDP per inhabitant in Timiș county);
- We can talk about a decisive impact of the state's intervention in favor of the development of the other two large university centers (Cluj-Napoca and Iași) - a public policy that is disadvantageous to Banat and Timișoara, probably based on the idea that we have our own resources, large foreign investments , almost zero unemployment – which explains the reality only very briefly and on the surface;
- If the objective pursued by the whole community is for the local economy to become strong, diversified and with long-term sustainable growth, another level of budget funding of universities, even double the current figures, is more than necessary;
- The funding deficit of the Timișoara university center compared to those in Iași and Cluj-Napoca has an amplified effect and a factor unfavorable to Timișoara - the absorption pool of students is much larger in Cluj-Napoca and Iași - and for Timișoara an extra number of places financed can counterbalance a minus of the area of absorption of students;
- Timișoara has done nothing but seek, through excellence and competitiveness, to reduce the academic tradition gap it has with Cluj or Iași, with more or less success - but, if we continue to be underfunded, there are very few chances to succeed in reaching the level of the university cities of Cluj or Iași - and in the horizon of 2030, Timișoara risks entering a decline in comparative development, after being a performer of development at the national level.
UVT Rector, Prof. Univ. Dr. Marilen Gabriel Pirtea: „Together with the fellow rectors of the Timișoara member universities of ATU, I will submit to the Ministry of Education the conclusions of this comparative projection on the public budgets allocated for the university centers of Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca and Iași in the last 10 years. The resulting ideas will represent a set of argumentative data that the universities of ATU will support for setting another level of public funding budgets that will be allocated to the Timișoara university center by the Ministry of Education, for the recognition of the strategic role played by the universities of Timișoara in the development of the entire region of Banat, but especially to stimulate the competitiveness of the Timișoara economy, the traction of which cannot grow in the absence of correctly sized generations of graduates, at least for the horizon of the next economic decade".
VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/uvtromania/videos/1191373684637537
INFO about the comparative study data: Prof. Univ. Dr. Cosmin Enache, vice-rector of UVT responsible for the financial and digitalization strategy (cosmin.enache@e-uvt.ro)
