Titu Maiorescu University opened the new academic year in the presence of Her Majesty Margareta.
and His Royal Highness Prince Radu
Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest opened its gates for the 2023-2024 academic year. on October 2nd, in the Aula Magna, in the presence of a large audience, composed of students, professors, personalities from the Romanian academic, educational, scientific, and cultural world.
At the Opening Ceremony, attended as special guests, Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Romanian Crown, and His Royal Highness Prince Radu. The presence of high representatives of the Royal House at the inauguration of the academic year constituted a way for Titu Maiorescu University to recognize and honor the fundamental role of the Romanian Monarchy in the country's history.
The opening of the new academic year took place under the auspices of the Titu Maiorescu University's 33rd anniversary, an age of great symbolic significance on a spiritual level. The event provided the setting for welcoming students, master's students, and doctoral students into the university space and, at the same time, an opportunity for the University to solemnly reaffirm its commitment to quality education and research, to excellence and performance.
The event was opened by President of Titu Maiorescu University, Prof. Dr. Iosif Urs, who spoke about the exemplary cooperative relationship between Titu Maiorescu, the founder of modern Romanian culture and civilization, and King Carol I, about the concern of the founders of Modern Romania for the establishment of Romanian education as a factor in the country's development. In this context, Professor Urs referred to the dual significance of the opening moment: the beginning of a new academic year and the beginning of an era of collaboration, continuing that between the two great personalities of history, between Titu Maiorescu University and the Royal House of Romania, a collaboration for education and development through knowledge. He stated that, just as in the period of building Modern Romania, we are again in an era of establishment, of building European Romania. In this process, education, higher education, and research, university play a fundamental role in an era of unprecedented technological advancements. „Titu Maiorescu University reaffirms, with full responsibility, its mission of instructing, educating, and training new generations, aware that it is thus participating in the building of Romania's future, continuing the work of our great predecessors.”
The Rector of Titu Maiorescu University, University Professor Dr. Daniel Cochior, presented an essential overview of the University to the audience, highlighting its structure, current status, and position within the Romanian higher education landscape, as well as its directions and priorities for action. Starting in 2012, Titu Maiorescu University has received the „High Confidence” rating from the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. The same rating was awarded to the University by ARACIS following the institutional evaluation in 2022, a significant achievement that attests to the quality of education and research conducted at the University. The status of Titu Maiorescu University within Romanian higher education is significantly expressed by its consistent inclusion in Metaranking-ul University 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 among the top 30 universities in the country, Titu Maiorescu University being the only comprehensive private university present in the ranking. The university is engaged in a continuous development process, in terms of investments in infrastructure and logistics, digitalization, the creation of new programs and internationalization of studies. Ensuring quality and excellence in education and research, developing an innovative spirit in scientific research, focusing on students, their full training for their fields of expertise and for society remain the University's priorities in the new academic year.
His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Romania He stated from the presidium of the event that the number 33 unites us, because this year marks 33 years since the Royal Family returned to the country. Romania has been making efforts to become modern for a century and a half, since Carol I, and this is probably the most important period in Romanian history over two millennia. He emphasized the importance of pillar institutions, such as the Romanian Academy, the Church, the Army, and the Royal Crown, in the country's development and in increasing Romania's influence on the European stage. Romania is a key country „in this unfortunate part of Europe where nothing lasts more than a few decades.” Today, both age groups of society, as well as its institutions, bring glory to the most beautiful age and occupation, that of giving and receiving knowledge. Although technology exists, the fundamental meaning of exchanges between us is based on love, generosity, and this never changes.
Father Professor Ștefan Buchiu, Honorary Diocesan Vicar, represented the Romanian Patriarchate, delivered a speech under the title: „Cooperation between the Church and the University,” in which he spoke about the importance of collaboration between these two fundamental institutions in educating young people based on spiritual, religious, and social values. Starting from the fact that the Holy Synod declared 2023 as The Jubilee Year of Pastoral Care for the Elderly, has encouraged collaboration between young and old, who need each other and between whom there must be merciful love. The Church strives to respond to society's demands through programs carried out at home and abroad, through social-philanthropic projects, and the organization of pilgrimages. Furthermore, the Church encourages volunteer activities carried out by students, which consist of home care, and material and spiritual support.
Mrs. Laura-Iuliana Scântei, judge of the Constitutional Court, who represented the president of the institution, Marian Enache, he said that today's students are a free generation in that they have the freedom to choose what and where to learn. To be educated is to be free. This year marked the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 1923 Constitution, which was also the occasion to celebrate the centenary of the Constitution of the whole of Romania. In this context, he referred to the contribution of King Ferdinand and the politicians of the time to its enactment and implementation. The 1923 Constitution enshrined the Romanian State and, at the same time, the prohibition of discrimination of any kind. Since then, education is free and primary education is compulsory and free. The 1991 Constitution has taken over the fundamental provisions of the 1923 Constitution, reviving and perpetuating a democratic tradition in the process of building contemporary Romania. In the field of legal research, he has advocated collaboration between the Constitutional Court and Titu Maiorescu University in the realization of a history of the Constitution. He also invited students to visit the Constitutional Court and familiarize themselves with its activities. He also advised them to never tire of studying, to never tire of searching for answers, to work hard and constantly, to be good Romanians and not to forget the young people of 1989 who gave their lives for freedom so that today's young people would be the first generation born free in full democratic exercise.
Prof. univ. dr. Teodor Frunzeti, President of the Senate of Titu Maiorescu University, stated that Titu Maiorescu University is a young, dynamic, competitive university that contributes to the modernization of Romania. Students are well represented in the University Senate, which is a guarantee of the continued support for educational values.
University Professor, PhD, Ioana Mânea, Vice-Rector for International Relations, addressed international students enrolled in the University's programs with a welcome message, assuring them that they are in a quality higher education institution that will provide them with all the necessary support in adapting to a new language and culture, to the academic training process, and to specialization in their chosen fields of study. The growth of the international student community is of particular importance for the University's development within the internationalization of studies process.
Prof. univ. dr. Sorin Ivan, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences, Communication, and International Relations, spoke about the complex mission of the University, about its two roles, training and education, and about the need for them to be balanced, in a relationship of synergy and complementarity, without the priority of training and specialized training overshadowing the other priority, the moral formation of students. The university is the world's most important institution, which, from the University of Bologna to today's Digital University, has built civilization through knowledge. The university is not only a place of instruction and knowledge, but also of education, of educating and training students through moral, social and human values. Hence, the ethical dimension of university education and the mission of the University, which humanizes knowledge, today, within a new Humanism, Digital Humanism. In this complex training process, intellectual, scientific, cultural, cultural, spiritual, moral and human role models are needed: professors, who must also be mentors, and exemplary personalities in various fields.
During the Opening Ceremony, Titu Maiorescu University, through its President and Rector, offered Her Majesty Margareta Diploma of Excellence and Jubilee Medal for 33 years of existence of UTM for the promotion of the values of Romanian education, science, culture, and civilization, for supporting quality education and meritorious youth. President Iosif Urs presented His Royal Highness Prince Radu of Romania with the first three volumes of Romanian Legal Encyclopedia, a project initiated by Titu Maiorescu University and carried out by it in partnership with the „Andrei Rădulescu” Institute of Juridical Research of the Romanian Academy.
In the same context, Her Majesty Margareta symbolically offered, Diploma of Merit graduates with a perfect 10 GPA from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Roxana Georgeta Vișan, an achievement that earned her the title of valedictorian, and student Miruna Ioana Caisân, the first admitted, with a perfect 10 GPA, to the Faculty of Medicine at Titu Maiorescu University.
The Opening Ceremony of the 2023-2024 Academic Year also included cultural moments, which consisted of a musical recital supported by Marcel Pavel, tenor Andrei Lazăr and baritone Iordache Basalic and a Folk dance recital performed by the folklore ensemble „Doinița” of the Bucharest Student Cultural Center.
The event was streamed online on the University's YouTube channel and can be watched: Click here!
THE
The Communication and Public Relations Office of Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest
02.10.2023