Redesigning the Instructional Act in Romanian Higher Education

Abstract

The dynamics and scope of societal changes are reflected in the evolution of the higher education system. Education has to address the ever-changing needs imposed by an active and highly complex market. By means of an empirical analysis, the present study validates the correlation between the expectations of the instructional act (competences) Keywords: Economics and business, higher education, instistutional act, teaching/learning methods.THE intense competition in the higher education sector 1 and its internationalization increase expectations towards higher education institutions 2 , which prompts a series of transformations in order to address these needs. A great amount of pressure is exerted by the real-world environment (the employers), who expect graduates to be equipped with a set of competences, abilities, attitudes and mindsets that would support employment shortly after graduation. Graduates have to become useful to their employers and should easily integrate in the technical, economic and social environment.Thus, the changes need to bring forth market-type solutions 3,4 , where the needs and expectations of universities meet those of the employers. In the middle is students' development, as well as the ability of universities to achieve the customer-perceived service quality, which will affect the sustainability of the institution in question 5 . Several authors consider that educational context, curriculum design, learning environment, teaching and assessment practices influence the evolution of a student 6,7 . The main target of training in case of the future graduates is a set of competences that they should acquire. Mulder et al.8 view competences as a series of integrated capabilities consisting of clusters of knowledge, skills and attitudes indispensable for task performance and problemsolving, and for being able to function effectively in a certain profession, organization, job, role and situation. This system of competences leads to a re-design of the university curriculum, where disciplines are converted into professional and transversal competences.The present study explores through the point of view of Romanian higher education academic staff. The positioning of a discipline is from three points of view: (1) construction of the curriculum by components; (2) influential factors which render valuable (disciplines converted into competences) the construction of a curricular programme, and (3) delivery of the disciplinary contents through traditional or modern methods. Garcia and Roblin 9 assert that each discipline should be regarded within an interdisciplinary framework, starting from its description in broad lines and continuing with a phase of continuous development, in close relationship with the external setting, the actors involved, the research in related fields and the practical experience.The motivation for this study is the fact that the bridge between student and teacher, and between quality/ quantity of information conveyed and development of personal efficacy, flexibility and li...