Romanian higher education: present and perspectives

The paper aims to present the current state of Romanian higher education, based on statistical data on number and trends of student population and staff. The latest progresses in Bologna process are analyzed, with a special attention to international student’s mobility. Based on demographic projection, the paper also reflects the perspectives of Romania higher education at 2025 horizon. Statistics reveal an unseen development of Romanian higher education, in terms of number of students and an increasing international cooperation, but the perspective are more pessimistic. Demographic trends will have a crucial impact on higher education. Romanian universities apply fairly passive policies which reflect rather adjustment to current demographic situation than anticipation of changes to come. Obviously, combining the two approaches would be an optimum solution.higher education, quality assurance, international student mobility, demographic projections

REGIONAL EFFICIENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN THE NEW EU COUNTRIES: THE ROMANIAN AND BULGARIAN CASE

Economic success is ever more based upon the effective utilization of intangible assets such as knowledge, skills and innovative potential as the key resource for competitive advantage. For transitional countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, the efficiency of research and development activities is particularly important, since technological progress is one of the core aspects of economic growth. In this article we describe the common features of the two countries, but also the existing differences with respect to the knowledge based economy. There are significant regional differences within the countries and marginal regions must also close the gap with the more developed regions. This paper analyzes research efficiency at the regional level for NUTS2 regions from Romania and Bulgaria between 2003 and 2005, applying a DEA framework. Our main finding is that Bulgarian regions are more efficient in R&D activities compared to Romanian ones. The only Romanian efficient region is Bucuresti Ilfov, while the other two efficient regions are rather small Bulgarian regions, with fewer resources. They show a remarkably high level of research efficiency, whereas some of the larger regions (both from Romania and Bulgaria) lag behind.regions, knowledge economy, transition countries, efficiency, DEA

Regional efficiency of knowledge economy in the new EU countries: The Romanian and Bulgarian case

The economic success is more and more based on upon the effective utilization of intangible assets such as knowledge, skills and innovative potential as the key resource for competitive advantage. For transition countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, the efficiency of research and development activities is particularly important, since technological progress is one of the core aspects of economic growth. In this article we describe the common features of the two countries, but also the existing differences in respect with knowledge based economy. There are significant regional differences within the countries and marginal regions must close the gap with more developed regions. The paper analyzes research efficiency at the regional level for NUTS2 regions from Romania and Bulgaria between 2003 and 2005, applying a DEA framework. Our main finding is that Bulgarian regions are more efficient in R&D activities compared to Romanian ones. The only Romanian efficient region is Bucuresti Ilfov, while the other two efficient regions are rather small Bulgarian regions, with fewer resources. They show a remarkably high level of research efficiency, whereas some of the larger regions (both from Romania and Bulgaria) lag behind.regions; knowledge economy; transition countries; efficiency; DEA

Does religion matter? Exploring economic performance differences among Romanian emigrants

Although migration and religion have traditionally developed as two separate research topics, in the current context of globalization and trans-nationalism attention begins to focus on the way they interconnect. Religion received little attention in Romanian studies on migration undertaken so far. Using the results of our survey among Romanian international migrants of different religious faiths, this paper aims to raise interest in migration-religion relationship and, at the same time, to improve the understanding of the economic performance factors in a migration context by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of Romanian religious minorities. We address both the theoretical and the empirical dimension of this topic, making use of various statistical methods. Our main findings are consistent with the assumption that religious belief is reflecting upon the behavior and economic performance of Romanian migrants.religious minorities, international migration, economic performance, remittances, Romania

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF ROMANIAN EMIGRANTS. AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

Although migration and religion studies have traditionally developed as separate research topics, in the current context of globalization and transnationalism attention begins to focus on the way they may interconnect. Consequently, recent studies of migration raise the importance and role of religion in the international migration flows, distinguish between the socio-economic and religious inclusion of the immigrants in the host country or discuss the role that migration plays in the reconfiguration of religions in the contemporary world. Religion often inspires migration, as religious minority groups facing persecutions in the homeland may decide to move to more religious tolerant places. Conversely, migration almost always affects religion as the religion tradition and practice is usually modified following the resettlement and immigrants’ daily life routines irremediably alter. In Romania religion also received some attention in recent theoretical and empirical analyses of migration, but there are only a few studies undertaken so far. Using the results of our online survey conducted during August-December 2010 among Romanian international migrants of different religious faiths, this paper aims to raise interest in migration-religion relationship and, at the same time, to improve the understanding of the factors of economic performance in a migration context by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of Romanian religious minorities. We address both the theoretical and the empirical dimension of this topic, making use of various statistical methods. Our main findings are consistent with the assumption that religious belief is reflecting upon the behavior and economic performance of Romanian migrants.

International Mobility of Romanian Students in Europe: From Statistical Evidence to Policy Measures

International mobility of any kind is quite young in Romania, and it was possible only after falling of the communist regime in 1989. Consequently, the paper reflects firstly some conceptual issues on international student mobility; than, in the second part, a statistical portrait of student mobility in Romania is presented, in connection with the European context. We notices that the Romanian student mobility is lower that European one, so in the third part we focus on barriers to international student mobility, and also on policy measures that should be taken in Romania.higher education international student mobility Romania policy measures

The Effects of the Quantification of Faculty Productivity: Perspectives from the Design Science Research Community

In recent years, efforts to assess faculty research productivity have focused more on the measurable quantification of academic outcomes. For benchmarking academic performance, researchers have developed different ranking and rating lists that define so-called high-quality research. While many scholars in IS consider lists such as the Senior Scholar’s basket (SSB) to provide good guidance, others who belong to less-mainstream groups in the IS discipline could perceive these lists as constraining. Thus, we analyzed the perceived impact of the SSB on information systems (IS) academics working in design science research (DSR) and, in particular, how it has affected their research behavior. We found the DSR community felt a strong normative influence from the SSB. We conducted a content analysis of the SSB and found evidence that some of its journals have come to accept DSR more. We note the emergence of papers in the SSB that outline the role of theory in DSR and describe DSR methodologies, which indicates that the DSR community has rallied to describe what to expect from a DSR manuscript to the broader IS community and to guide the DSR community on how to organize papers for publication in the SSB

Employment rate prognosis on the basis of the development environment trend displayed by years-clusters

The authors analyze the dynamics of the employment rate in Romania and propose a forecast model for it. In the paper we start with the hypothesis that the dynamics of the employment rate has a specific trend displayed by years-clusters differentiated on the value and the sign of the dynamics indexes of the phenomena by which we define the economic environment. The forecast method that we propose takes into consideration the environment conditions in which the studied phenomenon evolves and it implies the use of statistical methods of multivariate analysis (Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant Analysis). The application of such a forecast method supposes an algorithm that implies several stages: (1) the evaluation and synthesis of the inter-relations among the phenomena by which we describe the development environment employment rate dynamics; (2) the identification of the years-cluster to which the desired forecast horizon is classified; (3) the estimation of the employment rate dynamics for the specified forecast horizon. The proposed forecast model, examining the development environment of the influence factors, may be used for simulating forecast alternatives that can be considered for founding the economic development strategies.employment rate, transition, Romania, influence factors, principal component analysis, discriminant analysis

THE BOLOGNA PROCESS AND THE DYNAMICS OF ACADEMIC MOBILITY: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH TO ROMANIA AND TURKEY

Recent changes that have occurred in the European higher education system are grounded on the options of continental countries, expressed in the Bologna Declaration, to achieve a single European space in this field by the year 2010. The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of student mobility in the process of internationalization of higher education in a South European context. The rationale of the study is that student mobility has long been the most important dimension of the process of internationalization of higher education. At the moment there is increasing demand for higher education, as a consequence of demographic trends and the need for new degrees and diploma programs. The article focuses on two countries from South-Eastern Europe, Romania and Turkey. Both countries have a very dynamic higher education system, in terms of number of students and stuff, integrating in Bologna process. They also are primarily perceived as sending students countries. The key findings are linked to obstacles and solutions to overcome this obstacle. It also stresses the necessity of the two higher education systems to be more involved in attracting European students.Bologna process, higher education, international student mobility, Romania, Turkey

Determinants of Romanian International Migrants' Remittances

In the past few years, there has been a renewed interest in remittances of international migrants, as their strong recent increase shed more light on the effects at both micro and macro level. The remittances not only contribute to the well-being of the receiving households, but are also a large source of external financing, second only to FDI. The remittances are particularly important for Romania as in 2010 it was on the 5th place in the European top of emigration countries and on the 4th place as remittance recipient country. Therefore the determinants of remittance behavior need to be better understood. Following increasing interest and significant public debate on migration in Romania, our paper examines the significance of selected economic and demographic factors associated with the remittance behavior of Romanian international migrants, as characterized by the propensity to remit and the amount remitted. In particular we address the question of the role played by the geographic distance, as potentially affecting the immigrants’ ties with their homeland and consequently the remittance decisions. Our present work builds on a recent source of data on immigrant cohort resulting from an online survey conducted during August-December 2010. Respondents were asked questions on a variety of topics including income, employment, remittances, regions of origin and destination, graduated studies both in Romania and in emigration country, length of migration and intention to return to Romania. The final database consisted of 1514 Romanian immigrants from 55 destination countries. We developed several multivariate models to study the determinants of remittances by employing regression analysis. Among the main findings is that the geographic distance is not related to the remittances. Although contrasting with the existing literature, this result can be explained by factors such as modern instant communication and fast travel supporting very strong and resilient transnational links despite geographic distance.