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Nation Branding in Post-Communist Romania. A Semiotic Approach
Abstract
”Does Romania need a country brand?” is the headline of an article published in 2010 in ziare.com, one of the most read Romanian news portal. The country image and the debates on nation branding are permanent agenda themes in Romania, especially after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. In this context, the present volume proposes an analysis of media discourses on Romania’s country image in different situations, some of them explicit (nation branding as a public problem), and some implicit (labor migration in the European Union).
http://edituracomunicare.ro/carti/domenii/mass-media/nation-branding-in-post-communist-romania-a-semiotic-approach-583.html
The sharp decline in fertility rates that has occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of communist regimes has generated a realignment of social, economic and political realities across the region. Romania is no exception, and the ageing of its population has influenced a sharp reversal of the admissions boom of the 90s and 2000s. Universities are struggling to attract enough students while overall participation in higher education, when measured by the share of 30 to 34-year-olds with at least a bachelor’s degree, places Romania last among the 27 EU members. Drawing upon data from the National Matriculation Registry (RMU), the paper aims to analyse trends in student admissions and map university recruitment flows. The paper uses network analysis of existing student populations to identify universities with demographically vulnerable recruitment basins. The paper then discusses the impact of these vulnerabilities and analyse the wider challenges posed for universities by changing demographics and low cohort intakes. We find that variations in attractivity and demographic transformations combine to fuel a realignment of the structure of the Romanian Higher Education system that is already visible in enrolment patterns. This asymmetry does not only impact higher education but also development patterns and higher education funding policies. On the one hand, the paper informs policymakers on how existing demographic trends and recruitment flows are likely to influence the economic viability of existing universities, as well as how the currently low level of tertiary education attainment is reflected at a regional level. On the other hand, the paper encourages universities to rethink their competitive advantages in this revealed complex competition system to make better data-driven, evidence-based decisions when it comes to recruitment strategies in a context of scarcity and uncertainty.
In the last five years in Romania, a series of measures and policies have been adopted that aimed to increase the enrolment and participation of Romanian citizens in higher education. However, we are still witnessing a decline in the number of students even though Romania has the lowest proportion of graduates (30–34 years) with a higher education diploma in the EU. Through this paper, we will follow the educational path of students in final grades in upper secondary education to analyse how many of them graduated from the national baccalaureate exam and later became students. The data come from the interconnection of two important databases from the Romanian education system, the National Student Register (RMUR) and the Integrated Information System of Education in Romania (SIIIR). Access to higher education must be viewed not only from the perspective of the admissions process but also from the perspective of generational losses that have a direct impact on the human resources eligible for higher education. Thus, we will insist on analysing the “losses” of human capital registered in the national education system in the last year of study in pre-university education, looking at the same time at the characteristics of students who manage to enter higher education. The current analysis is based on the work done within the project “Quality in higher education: internationalization and databases for the development of Romanian education” (code POCU/472/6/8/126766/21.11.2018, implemented by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) in partnership with the Ministry of Education (ME).
Performance-based funding has a long experience of debates and implementation in Romania, distinguishing three main stages of refinement in its implementation, starting with 2002. The actual form is similar starting with 2016, an important share of Romanian higher education funding for teaching activities in public universities (26.5%) being distributed according to quality indicators (applied by field of study). Given that the main objective of this mechanism is to reward performance, as well as to assure a more transparent and predictable resource allocation, the aim of this paper is to identify how this allocation mechanism actually worked over the past five years. The performance-based criteria employed in the supplementary funding component cover four main categories: teaching/learning, scientific research/artistic creation, international orientation, regional orientation & social equity. According to the national funding allocation mechanism, each quality indicator is assigned a share of the total funding, with the final distribution being determined by each institutions performance score relative to the others in the same scientific field. The paper unfolds the evolution of this systems implementation in the five years since its adoption (2016–2020) and presents the main results of a preliminary analysis. We also explore the extent to which certain characteristics of universities, such as their size or their dominant field of study, impact the resulting distribution of funds. This paper results may enrich and contribute to the larger national and international debate on performance-based funding and quality assurance in higher education.
This paper explores the specificities of doctoral studies, focusing on students’ well-being. It is part of an ongoing research project analysing doctoral studies in Romania, focusing on three main themes: access, participation and completion. The multiple facets of the doctoral studies within the Bologna Process—seen at a crossroad between EHEA and ERA, and as a cornerstone of the ‘knowledge-based society’—reflect onto the various roles assigned to doctoral candidates: students, emerging researchers, teaching and research assistants. While the doctoral cycle tends to prioritise the development of research and academic skills, it appears to be lacking appropriate support mechanisms for students. In order to better understand these mechanisms, the paper is structured on three levels: current context, practices and the students’ perspective. This latter level explores internal and external factors of success—among others: motivation, personal/professional development, academic identity, doctoral supervision, research guidance, financial support, career counselling, and societal role. To do so, the paper draws upon a mixed methodology, using data collected from workshops with relevant stakeholders and a questionnaire addressed to Ph.D. students. By superimposing these layers, our paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of doctoral studies in Romania, with a focus on the well-being of doctoral students. Finally, it attempts to shape several proposals for improving both the practices and the policy framework of doctoral studies in Romania while taking into account the future of higher education and research in Europe, as well as European good-practice examples.
Research on higher education, and not only, has used data collected for administrative purposes—register data, to answer various policy-relevant questions. The employability of university graduates is one of such questions, which have been pending, especially in those countries whose higher education massified in the last decades. The promise of register data relies on its objective nature and apparent low cost: researchers are basically processing data that is collected for administrative purposes. In spite of these advantages, register data is still underused. Data protection restrictions, especially the alignment to the General Data Protection Regulation, are reported to temper the thrust towards making administrative data available as micro-data for secondary use. We consider that the policy dialogue would benefit from a transdisciplinary exploration of the solutions found in the EU to counter such reservations to the use of register for research. We propose an analysis at the intersection of policy studies and law of two solutions found in the EU to make register data available to researchers. We attempt to address two related questions: how are the processes designed? How is the GDPR compliance put into practice? We used structured observations of primary and secondary literature to collect our data. Our aim is to enrich the debate surrounding register data as a basis for policy-relevant research and, pragmatically, to indicate policy solutions that can be easily adjusted to national contexts in the EU and put on the table of decision-makers.
This article uses a new global data set on higher education enrolments and finance covering 56 countries and well over 90% of the global higher education sector by enrolment, in order to examine the Romanian experience in higher education since 2006 in both a regional and a global comparative perspective. These comparisons highlight a few key facts about Romanian higher education, in particular: how different the institutional typology is compared to others in the region, how unprecedented the collapse in enrolments in the years after 2009, and how few resources, either public or private, the country invests in higher education compared to either a continental or global standard. The implications of these facts for Romanias future economic growth are briefly discussed.
The Institutional Development Fund (FDI) is a newly introduced component of Romanian institutional funding with the purpose of supporting public higher education institutions (HEIs) in their pursuit of the national strategic objectives for higher education. This policy aims to encourage universities to formulate their own answers (through institutional projects) to current higher education challenges such as equity and access for students, internationalisation, regional development, improving the quality of teaching, supporting the entrepreneurial and practical activities developed for the benefit of students, etc. Given its current form as a simple combination between objective-based funding and competitive funding, and its recent implementation at a national level, we propose an in-depth exploration of the policys results focusing on institutional activities and targeted objectives. To this aim, the paper presents the relevant results obtained by universities in the last five years of FDI implementation, the trends of HEIs institutional development (measured at the university level), as well as the direct and indirect influence these might have over the overall quality of the Romanian higher education system. At the same time, we look to identify new institutional measures in response to the actual needs of universities (in accordance with university autonomy) in order to underline new implementation directions in accordance with national policies and strategies, both in relation to funding and in relation to national goals, as well as to explore the potential of FDI funding for quality enhancement in higher education.
With the European Universities Initiative underway, the COVID-19 pandemic and various national or European strategies reaching their initially designated timeline, 2021 is a good moment to take stock of how Romania fulfilled its commitments regarding internationalization. One of the key dimensions of internationalization of higher education, both in Romania and global terms, is marketing and promotion, especially if one looks at the institutional efforts to attract talent. The article aims to show how Romanian universities use educational marketing to promote their study programs offer, in order to attract both international students and national students in the context of a steep student population decrease. The paper addresses two main research questions: How do universities use media and other mechanisms to promote their educational offer globally? Which are the main strengths allowing Romanian higher education to better attract international students? The article presents the main findings of the SWOT analysis for the Romanian higher education system, with information from 47 public universities. It compares the current findings with those from a similar SWOT analysis performed in 2015, while also putting forward a cost-benefit analysis of attracting international students and developing internationalization of higher education. The paper also underlines several areas where universities can focus their efforts in attracting international students (such as the www.studyinromania.gov.ro portal) and policy recommendations based on the data analyzed
Access to education, specifically in relation to socio-economic background, is one of the enduring issues in educational research. The theme is particularly salient for the Romanian case from a policy perspective, given the increase in social polarisation specific to the post-communist transition and its effect on access to higher education. Recent reforms in university funding have started to address this issue, with the inclusion of several mechanisms that allocate financial resources according to university efforts towards social equity. The main objective of our research is to provide an overview of the policies concerning the inclusion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds and assess the degree to which progress has been made towards reaching current national targets regarding access to higher education. We argue that although significant improvements have been made at the level of policy initiative, more precise targeting is needed in order to meet labour market demands, given that most current efforts are directed either at fresh high school graduates or at diminishing the dropout rate. These efforts, even if 100% successful, will not prove sufficient given current demographic trends. Therefore, we consider another potential avenue for increasing student numbers, suggesting that an orientation towards non-traditional students (adult students) might be beneficial. With this in mind, in the second half of the paper, we explore the main characteristics and trends concerning Romanian mature students using the results from the EUROSTUDENT VI and EUROSTUDENT VII studies, with the goal of formulating policy proposals that aim to unlock the potential of this demographic.
Romanian education policy was notoriously plagued by instability and a tendency to escape the normal policymaking cycle via top-down highly politicised reforms. After almost three decades, a new initiative by the President of Romania attempts to promote a more inclusive style of policymaking that would ensure wider societal support to upcoming educational reforms. The purpose of this article is to set the background to the wider discussion on Romanian higher education, placing it inside the context of the country�s efforts to reform its schools and universities via the Educated Romania project, on which the authors had the privilege of working. It aims to create a long-term, structured vision on which to centre future education reforms and to correct some of the imbalances that have emerged in Romanian education over the past few decades. The conclusion also analyses the chances of its survival in the current Romanian political and administrative status-quo.
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