Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest, a flagship higher education institution in Romania, recognized nationally and internationally for the complexity of its academic profile, the quality of its studies, and its dynamic development, a European university through its founding vocation, its spirit, its academic mission, and its institutional openness, connected to the ideas, developments, and trends in the Knowledge Space and deeply rooted in the reality of Romanian society, participates, through its educational process and research activities, through projects and programs, through ethical and civic involvement, through its attitude and stances on common interest topics, in The process of building a modern society and a European Romania through education, moral and spiritual values, research, and knowledge.
Within this institutional and conceptual framework, at the Opening of the 2021-2022 academic year and on the occasion of World Education Day (October 5), Titu Maiorescu University launches a Call for Education with the aim of raise public awareness The Importance and Role of Education for Society, Its Difficulties, Challenges, and Priorities Currently and in prospect, during a difficult period globally, and to contribute their collective assumption and the coagulation of a common, synergistic, and proactive attitude for Education in Romanian society.
- Education is essential for the development of the individual, the building of a modern society, and a civilized nation within European civilization. Education and research are fundamental factors of development and progress, vectors of the future, and means of building the Europe of Knowledge. Therefore Education must be assumed at a political level as national priority, as provided for by the Education Law, not just declaratively, for politicizing and electoral reasons, but through political support, action, initiatives, coherent programs aimed at change, modernization, efficiency in the spirit and data of Europe's high-performing systems.
- Romanian education as a whole needs a modern legislative framework, to support, through its provisions, implemented by political and administrative measures, processes of change and development, cultivation of quality in education and research, encouragement of performance, university autonomy, and academic freedom, recognizing institutional value in higher education and appreciating it based on objective criteria and the platform of political correctness. All of these are necessary, under the sign of priority, towards the modernization of the Romanian educational system and its alignment with the advanced educational systems in the European Union.
- Quality education requires substantial funding. There is no high-performing education and research without adequate financial support. Under chronic underfunding, without sufficient financial resources, vital for their existence and evolution, education and research in Romania are in difficulty developing to European standards, in accordance with the human potential it benefits. Financing of education and research, in applying the legal provisions, it must constitute A priority for Romania today and for any government, as part of the effort to develop the country through knowledge. Also in the letter and spirit of the law, higher education institutions, regardless of their legal status, based on the results and performance achieved, must have equal chances regarding state budget financing.
- The university is a fundamental institution, located in the heart of the community, a true pillar of society. Fulfilling its academic mission of university education and scientific research, the University constitutes a frame instruction, knowledge transfer, skills development and specialization, training future specialists for the labor market, and at the same time, education in the spirit of moral principles and values, who built European civilization. The university's role must be recognized, in all its complexity and true value, in the public sphere., of state institutions and decision-makers, and at the societal level, and for teachers to enjoy social respect, in accordance with their status, enshrined by UNESCO and symbolically celebrated by World Teacher's Day (October 5), which entered public consciousness as World Education Day.
- In fulfilling its mission, the University's absolute priority is Quality assurance in education. Quality is the condition essential condition of an effective and competitive education. Notion of higher education must be based not on chronological and administrative status, but on the substance and quality of education, which pave the way to excellence and performance. A university that makes its cultivating quality to the highest standards the meaning of its existence is an institution that honors its name and status and actively participates in the work inscribed in its mission, to conduct education and research at an academic level. By contrast, A university that does not meet the standards of quality in education and research is an institution that is not fulfilling its mission., a form without substance. A university conscious of its mission and meaning in today's world must address Quality assurance, through the specific instruments and mechanisms, like an institutional priority and a permanent objective.
- Connected to developments in the Knowledge Space and processes in the socio-economic environment, today's University must be engaged, in relation to these changes and challenges, in a continuous process of institutional adaptation and redefinition. The university must increasingly become, an elite space for education, encouragement of free thinking and exchange of ideas, creativity and innovative spirit, openness and internationalization, diversity and intercultural dialogue. At the same time, maintaining a balance between the need to uphold academic quality standards and the needs of society, University it must be responsive to societal demands, it must be an inclusive institution, to integrate increasingly diverse audiences, to ensure equal access to university studies, equity, gender equality, and equal opportunities, to actively participate in the process of educating, training, counseling and guiding, forming specialists and professionalizing fields of activity, and thus to be, a factor for development and progress. Given the constant need for training through higher education institutions, driven by rapid developments in the labor market, the University must develop new forms of training and specialization in the paradigm Lifelong learning, open to all audience categories, including non-traditional ones.
- The university is a space for intellectual and moral values. In the context of its academic and social mission, the University must honor its institutional status., space of education and knowledge, to cultivate high standards of instruction and morality, to promote exclusively value and merit, to respect and rigorously apply the ethical criteria that define it as a benchmark institution of the community and nation. In this regard, we must under no circumstances and under any circumstances, to deviate from its values, to firmly condemn deviations from ethical and deontological norms, acts contrary to university morality, the practice of plagiarism, abuses of any kind, and to cultivate respect for the law and ethical norms, for academic morality, and for university conduct, to foster a morally and spiritually healthy environment, to always be an example and a benchmark for the community. At the same time, the University must to cultivate them for students systematically an academic spirit governed by moral and deontological values, by the principles of ethics and academic integrity.
- In the Knowledge Society and the Age of Information and Communication Technology, advancements in the economy, science, and technology are driving unprecedented progress and development. Digital technology, present in all areas of activity and existence, has become the support for these developments, accelerating humanity's development. During the pandemic crisis, technology created the framework for the continuation of global existence by moving activities online in all fields, including education. Currently and in the future, education in general, higher education, and scientific research in particular can no longer be conceived without the contribution and support of digital technology. The university of the present must look towards the future, open its doors wide to technology, involve its tools in education and research, and digitalize its resources, services, procedures, and processes. In a necessary metamorphosis, today's university, the fundamental institution in the process of building the Knowledge Society, must become a Digital University.
- Romania has a exceptional intelligence potential, internationally recognized and confirmed by the development of Romanian specialists in prestigious companies and consortia, in top universities and research institutes. Many of the young people in this situation are graduates of Romanian universities who continue their studies and specialization process abroad and choose to work and develop their careers overseas. Through this continuous exodus, determined in many cases by the lack of options and prospects in the country, Romania is losing important intellectual resources. A priority for the political class and any government must be creating special conditions for young people with potential, attracting them to the country, and involving them in scientific research and in leading areas of education, science, and knowledge, which contribute to the country's development.
- In direct relation to its role as a medium for development and evolution, Education must be addressed by all political forces, institutions, organizations, socio-economic and cultural entities, and Romanian society as a whole as area of strategic importance and assumed as National Project. In this vision, Education must bring together all political and social forces around it, which will make the modernization and efficiency of the system a priority objective assumed and implemented in a non-partisan manner within a continuous process. Quality, efficient, and competitive education is the means to achieve Educated Romania, in accordance with the Project carried out by the Presidential Administration, and offers The conditions for the modernization and development of the country in the direction of advanced civilizations within the European Union and the world.
Bucharest, October 4, 2021