EUniAM news and events

Group Workshop on Final Draft of Proposals to Improve the University Autonomy in Moldova

A group workshop was held on July 15, 2015. The purpose of the workshop was to work and discuss the final draft of proposals to improve the University Autonomy in Moldova. It was attended by EUniAM Project Coordinators - Romeo V. Turcan and Larisa Bugaian, and the four team leaders - Angela Niculita, Ala Cotelnic, Daniela Pojar, and Petru Todos. The workshop was hosted by the Technical University of Moldova.

Round table on the legislative proposals for “Enhancing University Autonomy” in Higher Education Sector in Moldova.

A round table, in the form of open seminars, on the legislative proposals for “Enhancing University Autonomy” in Higher Education Sector in Moldova was organized on May 26-28, 2015, in Chisinau, Cahul and Balti. The opening sessions and the open seminars were chaired by Larisa Bugaian, National Project Coordinator, and Romeo V. Turcan, Project Coordinator. The event was attended by the Minister of Education - Maia Sandu, Rector of the SUCahul - Andrei Popa, and Rector of the SUBalti - Gheorghe Popa, who made a welcome speech on project issues. Various presentations were made by the project external expert - John Reilly, UK, Romeo V. Turcan, DK, and project task force team members: Angela Niculita, Ala Cotelnic, Daniela Pojar, and Petru Todos. All the participants at the event had the opportunity to ask and debate on the legislative proposals made within the project.

The footage of the seminar can be accessed here.

Press Conference on May 26, 2015
The EUniAM project held a press conference on “Public Debates of Legislative Proposals...”.

The TEMPUS project “Enhancing University Autonomy in Moldova (EUniAM)”, in the person of project coordinators (Romeo V. Turcan, Larisa Bugaian), external expert of the project (John Reilly, UK) and the project working group members (Angela Niculita, Ala Cotelnic, Daniela Pojar and Petru Todos), held a press conference on “Public Debates of Legislative Proposals on the Enhancement of University Autonomy in the Higher Education Sector in Moldova” where media representatives were invited. The press conference was held on May 26, 2015, in the conference hall of the IPN Press Agency. The conference could be followed online on the Agency’s website www.ipn.md and can be accessed in the archives of the website.

Study visit to Sweden
A delegation from Moldova was in a study visit to Sweden in the first half of October, 2013.

On behalf of the Ministry of Education of RM, the delegation included the Deputy Minister of Education, Mrs. Loretta Handrabura, and the head of the Higher Education and Science Development Department, Mrs. Nadejda Velisco, and from the Ministry of Finance of RM - the Head of the Higher Education Department, Mrs. Bortoi Svetlana. Representatives of the higher education were two rectors, Mr. Belostecinic Ghrigore (AESM) and Mr. Popa Andrei (SUC), four vice-rectors, head of the Human Resources Department of AESM, Mrs. Teaca Aliona, chief of the Personnel of SAUM, Mr. Turita Sava, and a dean (Mr. Andronic Serghei, TUM), the President of the National Council of Student Organizations in Moldova, Mr. Cauia Alexander, and a senior lecturer from AESM.

During the study visit, the Moldovan delegation attended a series of meetings at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in which the topic of university autonomy was approached from different perspectives. Among the meetings that took place can be mentioned the meeting with the Head of KTH Administration, KTH Rector, Student Union representatives, representatives of schools and departments of KTH. In this context, discussions were held on KTH innovation, Strategic development of higher education, Swedish higher education and autonomy, Cooperation in framework of the Baltic Sea Region programme, Cooperation with the industrial partners, Administrative procedures at KTH, Funding of research in Sweden.

On behalf of the project executive team, we would like to thank very much all the colleagues who shared their knowledge and experience with the delegation from Moldova, as well to express our gratitude to Victor Kordas, Lisa Eriksson, Alicia Berlanga, Prof. Anders Flodstrom, Lennart Stahle, Cecilia Andrae, Ulrika Ljungman, Carina Kjorling, and Bjorn Birgisson, for the support provided in facilitating the development of the meeting agenda.

The footage of the visit can be accessed here.

Visit to Scotland
A delegation from the Republic of Moldova visited Glasgow, Scotland, on June 24 to 28, 2013.

Representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova, human resources, planning, finance, accountancy and didactic sections etc. from Moldovan major state universities took part in the study visit to Glasgow, Scotland.

At the University of Strathclyde, the delegation was welcomed on June 24 by Professor Tim Bedford, Associate Deputy Principal, and on June 26, at the Glasgow Caledonian University, by Professor Valerie Webster, Assistant Vice Princlpal. Besides that, the Moldovan delegation also visited "Hunter" Centre for Entrepreneurship, University and College Union, Recruitment and International Office, Strategy and Planning Directorate, Research and Knowledge Exchange Office of the University of Strathclyde, CPD centre, Learning Centre, Saltire Centre, Student Association of the Glasgow Caledonian University, the Chamber of Commerce, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development Agency, and in Edinburgh - lnterface.

Within the scope of the EUniAM project, the study-visit participants had the opportunity to learn as much and as detailed as possible about Scottish higher education, graduates recruitment, research and knowledge exchange, economic costs, Research Councils costing, engagement with industry, legal contracts, Research Governance, invention disclosure and management of intellectual property, company formation, commercialization and investment policy, approach to international funding opportunities and University's Internationalization Strategic Framework, concept of compliance, and importance of compliance in the University environment, a new model for engaging with business, the UK Government's Research Excellence Framework and the measurement of research in the UK, student autonomy and empowerment, the Business Gateway programme and other initiatives, issues for international exchange and study abroad, evaluation and documentation of the Research Portfolio of the academic staff on University Intranet.

On behalf of the project executive team, we would like to thank very much all the colleagues who shared their knowledge and experience with the delegation from Moldova, as well to express our gratitude to all speakers from the various institutions for their contribution: Professor Tim Bedford, Kay Gilbert, Mark Wilber, Suzanne Tinnings, Professor Sara Carter, Rona Smith, Darren Thompson, Dr. David McBeth, Susan Anderson, Louise McKean, Chris Mort, Stuart Mackenzie, Martin Gregory, Alison McFarlane, Professor Valerie Webster, Peter Yetton, Andy McNair, Flona Stewart Knight, Mark Wilber, John Marshall, Rhona Hodgart, lrene Bruce and Louise Arnold.

The footage of the visit can be accessed here.

Visit to Lithuania
A delegation from the Republic of Moldova visited Lithuania on June 10 to 14, 2013.

One rector, one vice-rector, seven heads of human resources, planning, finance, accountancy and didactic sections, one senior lecturer, one associate professor from major state universities, the president of the General Council of the Trade Union of Education and Science of Moldova and two members of students associations took part in the study visit to Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius University, Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA), Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre (MOSTA), Ministry of Education and Science, Research Council of Lithuania, National Open Access Scholarly Communication and Information Center, and Central historical Vilnius University Library.

At Mykolas Romeris University, the delegation was welcomed on June 10 by Vice-Rector for Development dr. Stasys Vaitkevicius and Laura Zebleckiene, Vice-Rector for Education assoc. prof. dr. Giedrius Viliunas and the head of Academic Affairs Centre, and Vice-Rector Research and International Relations prof. dr. Inga Zaleniene, and on June 12 by the head of administration assoc. prof. dr. Saulius Spurga. At Vilnius University, the delegation was welcomed on June 11 by Vice-Rector for Research, prof. dr. Eugenijus Butkus.

Within the scope of the EUniAM project, the study-visit participants had the opportunity to learn as much and as detailed as possible about Lithuanian higher education, university research strategy and implementation, research output evaluation, E-publishing, managing doctoral students, based research and higher education, tendencies of Lithuanian higher education and the view of stakeholders, monitoring of enrolment, study programme evaluation, running a faculty, faculty management, decentralization and responsibilities, innovation policy, main innovation support initiatives (innovation vouchers, intellectual property rights, start-ups etc.), R&D programmes, internationalization, international and bilateral research programmes, peer review procedures, and funding of research foundation.

On behalf of the project executive team, we would like to thank very much all the colleagues who shared their knowledge and experience with the delegation from Moldova, as well to express our gratitude to Birute Mikulskiene for the good organization of the event, as well as to all speakers from the various institutions for their contribution.

The footage of the visit can be accessed here.

International Conference CFP
A QUEST TO (RE)DEFINE UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY.

The theme of this conference is to (re)define the concept of university autonomy by exploring the relationships between the above four types of autonomy and five interfaces that characterize external and internal points of interactions between modern universities and their key stakeholders. These interfaces are: government – university; university management – university staff; university staff – students; university – businesses; and university – internationalization. By cross-tabulating the types of university autonomy and university interfaces we arrive at a holistic view of institutional autonomy of universities.

Under the conference theme, we encourage academics, policy makers and practitioners to become more engaged with the process of exploring and enhancing our understanding of the institutional autonomy of higher-education institutions. We invite papers and case studies that will encompass all aspects of the defined institutional autonomy. 

Conference date:

• 21-22 November, 2013

Paper submission deadline:

• 30 September, 2013

Conference auspice:

• The conference is organized under the auspices of Ministry of Education of Republic Moldova.

Conference host:

• Technical University of Moldova, Prof. Ion Bostan, Rector

Conference co-chairs:

• Prof. Larisa Bugaian, Vice-Rector Research, Technical University of Moldova
• Dr. Romeo V. Turcan, Associate Professor of International Business and Entrepreneurship, Aalborg University, Denmark

Welcome from co-chairs:

As the co-chairs of the International Conference organized within the TEMPUS funded project entitled ‘Enhancing University Autonomy in Moldova’, we kindly invite you to join us in November 2013 at the Technical University of Moldova.

We welcome papers and case studies on any of the following five conference tracks to address the potential interaction between various external and internal stakeholders of a modern university and university autonomy types, such as organizational, financial, staffing and academic. The conference tracks may be accesses here.

Working language:

• English (translation to and from Romanian will be provided)

Registration desk open:

• 20 November between 13:00-17:00
• 21 November between 08:30-17:00
• 22 November between 08:30-12:00

Visit to Aalborg University
A delegation from the Republic of Moldova visited Denmark at the end of April – beginning of May, 2013.

Deputy Vice Minister of Education, four rectors, six vice-rectors and four heads of HR, planning and finance sections from major state universities took part in the study visit to Aalborg University.

The delegation was welcomed by Romeo V. Turcan and Birgitte Gregersen (as the host of the project) on Monday of week 18 here in Aalborg and by Lene Lange on Thursday ay AAU CPH campus.

Within the scope of the EUniAM project, the study-visit participants had the opportunity to learn as much and as detailed as possible about various models of university/institutional autonomy in Denmark and to get a hands-on experience during the study visit on specific issues, approaches, methodologies, and relationships at various levels: department, study board, faculty, rector, knowledge transfer, ministry, to name a few.

On behalf of the project executive team, we would like to thank very much all the colleagues who shared their knowledge and experience with the delegation from Moldova, as well to express our gratitude to Inger Askehave, Birgitte Gregersen, Lene Lange, Rasmus Petrussen and Olav Sorensen for their support in facilitating the development of the meeting agenda.

You may read about this visit in our news letter.

The footage of the visit can be accessed here.

Visit to "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania
A delegation from the Republic of Moldova visited "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, on April 14 to 20, 2013.

Two representatives of the Ministry of Education: Higher Education Department consultant and head of the Department of Financial Management and Economic Reforms in Education; two representatives of the Ministry of Finance: head and senior consultant of the Department of Finance in Education, Culture and Science; representatives of most state universities: two vice rectors, one head of doctoral studies, four chief accountants, one trade union representative, two heads of human resources, three representatives of student organizations took part in the study visit to "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania.

Upon arrival in Suceava, on April 14, the delegation was welcomed at "Stefan cel Mare" University campus by the host (project partner), i.e. Professors Adrian Graur, Stefan Gheorghe Pentiuc and Radu Dumitru Pentiuc.

During the visit the delegation members got acquainted with the implementation and deployment experience of university autonomy in Romania, especially with models of university autonomy and the methodology for their application in different university components: administrative, academic, financial, pedagogic etc. There were organized meetings with representatives of the Ministry, the rector of the university, the management of faculties and departments, doctoral school etc. Also, meetings were held with financial, trade union, human resources and student organizations representatives.

On behalf of the executive team of the project we would like to thank a lot professors Adrian Graur, Valentin Popa, Stefan Gheorghe Pentiuc, Radu Dumitru Pentiuc, Mihai Popescu, Vasile Efros, Romeo Ionescu, Gabriela Prelipcean, Eugen Coca for their kindness to share knowledge and experience in the field concerned, and for an excellent ongoing of the meeting agenda.

The footage of the visit can be accessed here.

InfoTag: EUniAM Press Conference
On Friday, October 10th, EUniAM held a successful press conference.

Last Friday Moldovan media had an opportunity to get more information about the EUniAM project and ask their questions. The journalists from tv7, euroTV, realitatea.md and others attended the conference.  A particular attention drew financial autonomy issues as well as HR autonomy in terms of university employees’ salaries. The articles of the conference can be accessed here.

The footage of the conference can be accessed here.
 

Dissemination activities in Moldova – October 2014
The EUniAM project held a series of seminars in Moldova last week.

From October 7th to October 10th, the project hosted our external expert John Reilly (University of Kent) and representatives from the EU partner Universities: the project coordinator Dr. Romeo V. Turcan and  Prof. Olav Jull Sørensen from AAU, Victor Kordas and Lennart Johansson from KTH, Dr. Colin Simpson from the University of Gloucestershire, Dr. Andrius Stasiukynas from Mykolas Romeris University and Prof. Stefan G. Pentiuc from University of Suceava. Together with the task force teams leaders, the EU representatives and the external expert participated in a series of workshop-seminars that week. EU partners made presentations on the Burning Issues of University Autonomy, task force teams leaders presented benchmarking reports on the four types of autonomy. This time the events were held not solely in Chisinau, the EUniAM team also travelled to Cahul and Balti and conducted the seminars at the local universities. The events attracted attention of university managers and professors, as well as many students.

The footage of the seminars can be accessed here.

Second Article in the ECOnomist Newspaper
EUniAM project continues its dissemination activities and publishes one more article on University Autonomy in Moldovan Mass Media.

The second article in the ECO newspaper is focusing of the organizational component of autonomy and  presents a comparative study of organizational autonomy at the universities from Denmark, Lithuania, Scotland, Sweden and Romania conducted under the framework of EUniAM project. The text is written in Romanian and can be accessed here.

Article in the ECOnomist Newspaper
Start of the planned dissemination activities.

EUniAM project started realization of the dissemination activities planned for Autumn 2014. Today, Moldovan newspaper Economist, also known as ECO, published the first article about the project. The text is in Romanian, the publication can be accessed here.

Dissemination activities in October
A series of workshop-seminars, October 7-9, 2014, Republic of Moldova.

EUniAM project has planned an active Dissemination Campaign in Autumn 2014 and invites all interested parties to a series of workshop-seminars during which our team will present a comparative analysis of university institutional autonomy in Denmark, Lithuania, Romania, Scotland, and Sweden. We hope to stimulate a discussion and receive feedback from our stakeholders. The seminars will be held at the Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau, as well as at the University Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Cahul and at the State University Alecu Russo, Balti.

The dissemination announcement and the planned agenda can be accessed here.

Report on the implementation of the TEMPUS project
Summary of the project results to date.

Larisa Bugaian, our national project coordinator, prepared a report on implementation of the EUniAM project. The actions performed and the results achieved are listed starting from the initial stage of the project. In such a way, we present the level of the project development to date. The document is available under the work package 8 and can be accessed here.

Looking up to the experience of Scottish Higher Education
Week 6 - visit to Scotland.

In mid-February, the Task Force Mission team of the EUniAM project visited Scotland as part of the work package 3.

During the visit, the Task Force Mission team visited University of Strathclyde, Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland and Ministry of Education.

A wide spectrum of questions from university governance to peculiarities of curriculum development was discussed during the visit. On the macro level, the distribution of functions between the Ministry, the Rectors Council, and the Scottish Funding Council was particularly noted.

The researchers have got a detailed insight into the quality assurance mechanisms, regulation at different levels of university, and practicalities of processing of internal documentation. In terms of academic issues of university autonomy, the idea of cooperation with the industry in order to improve the curriculum and update study programs received special attention.

The footage of the conference can be accessed here.

First Data Collection Visit: Lithuania
The EUniAM project has now entered its second year of operation, the main focus of which is to learn, evaluate, and reflect on the EU experience on university autonomy.

During the months of January-March, the Task Force Mission team will visit the partner universities in Lithuania, UK, Sweden and Denmark to collect in-depth data on financial, organizational, HR and academic autonomy.

The first data collection visit took place in the week 4, when the Task Force Mission team travelled to Vilnius, and participated in a series of meetings facilitated by Birute Mikulskiene of Mykolas Romeris University (Photo 1 and 2). For example, the Task Force Mission team had the opportunity to meet at Mykolas Romeris University the Vice-Rector Administration, Vice-Dean, Head of Studies, and Head of HR; the team also met the Head of Funding and Budgeting Department at the Ministry of Education.

The footage of the first data collection visit can be accessed here.

Project kick-off in Moldova

The project was launched on November 20, 2012 in Chisinau, Moldova. Please read more about the event in our press release.