Background: Current paper discusses the process and the characteristics of the Bologna Process (BP) in the Department of Public

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1 Consequences of the Bologna process on Romanian Public Administration Schools case study in the Department of Public Administration in Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania Veronica Junjan 1, Sorin Dan Şandor 2, Ciprian Tripon 3 Abstract Current paper discusses the process and the characteristics of the Bologna Process in the Department of Public Administration in Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, aiming to identify positive and negative lessons resulted upon it. The methodology employed included document analysis, interviews, and focus groups with all the 24 full-time members of the Department of Public Administration. The research process resulted in a SWOT analysis of the transformation caused by the transition to the Bologna Process developed upon the interpretation of the faculty members positions towards it and in a curricula to be applied starting the Fall of 2005 in the Department of Public Administration of the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj- Napoca, Romania. Background: Current paper discusses the process and the characteristics of the Bologna Process (BP) in the Department of Public Administration in Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, aiming to identify positive and negative lessons resulted upon it. The BP is perhaps one of the most important policy processes currently taking place in the context of the Romanian transition to democracy. It affects the education system, and therefore has consequences primarily on all three levels: short, medium and long term. Expected changes for short term concern the decrease of number of courses, allowing the student more individual work, on medium term changes aim at strengthening the role of master programs, and for long term in the quality of the workforce in Romania. The BP for Romania has launched a significant discussion in academia, and to a lesser extent for the larger public. The peak of the debate was reached around the time when the Parliament passed the bill (2004) regarding the reorganization of higher education, and it was reflected in the public acknowledgement of few items such as undergraduate degrees will last three years instead of four, or there will be a master degree lasting for two years which will be focused, etc. This debate focused primarily on the changes in terms of structuring university studies in three cycles (bachelor, master, doctoral), number of credits for each cycle, and the length of study (initially, the options were for undergraduate study at 3 years, 3.5 years and 4 years, and for master level study the length of study debated was between 1.5 years or 2 years) 1. Almost one year later, there is still a lot of confusion regarding the consequences of this transformation process, sometimes even in the universities. The new legislation (law no. 288/ ) divides higher education in three cycles: bachelor, master, doctoral, differentiated according to the number of credits necessary to complete the cycle: First cycle ( ECTS) Bachelor degree; 1 Assistant Professors, Department of Public Administration, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2 Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 3 Assistant Professors, Department of Public Administration, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2 Second cycle ( ECTS, exceptionally 60 ECTS) Master degree; Third cycle (3 years and in special situations 4 or 5 years) - Doctoral degree Additional provisions are being made for insuring quality of teaching process through a specialized agency which will deal specifically with the quality process, a draft bill posted on the website of the National Ministry for Education for public debate and through the National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation (CNEAA) which is in place since 1993 and has as main objective the accreditation of the higher education programs in order to insure the quality of the education process. Additionally, each education institution is responsible to insure an internal overview of the quality process. However, the Ministry if Education is accountable for insuring the quality of the national education system. Additionally, the new Law mandates the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), initially started in 1996 by the four leading universities and generalized din 1998, but applied in a rather spurious way 3, and the issuing of the Diploma Supplement structured according to the European provisions. The Law also draws the general and specific competencies (skills) that students should possess at the graduation of the bachelor and master degree, and that specific competencies (skills) will be established according to each field. The National conference of the Rectors is the body authorized to establish the specific competencies for each field. The legislative framework sketched above seems thus to be rather restrictive. The BP for Public Administration (PA) in Romania has specific characteristics due to the fact that PA programs have a very short tradition. In Romania, the PA programs started only in 1995, and only at undergraduate level. At the beginning there was a single nationally imposed curricula for all the programs at national level but, after 1999, diversity gained more space, as those programs became stronger and graduate programs were established (Hintea, Ringsmuth, Public Administration Education in Romania, in Building Higher Education Programmes in Public Administration in CEE Countries, NISPAcee/European Public Administration Network, Bratislava/Leiden, 2000). Ten years after their start, PA programs are offered in more than 25 Romanian Universities. In 2002 a National Association of these schools was established, one of its purposes being to defend the standards of professionalization of future civil servants. The actual structure of these programs is 4 years of study at the undergraduate level (the most important one, having that postgraduate studies are not a requirement for getting a job, neither helping too much) and 1 or 2 years at the graduate level. Also, beside these programs, there is a network of Colleges for Local Public Administration 4, providing a 3 years undergraduate program (further named branch campus). Objectives: Current paper aims to describe and analyze the process of transition to, and the results thereof, of Bologna requirements, through investigating the impact of BP requirements upon the restructuring of the PA program at Babeş-Bolyai University. The analysis provided in this paper will be limited to the current situation and environment of this Department. The impact is defined in terms of the extent to which the DPA curriculum places itself on the following coordinates: program philosophy, competencies, teaching methods, personnel needs, regional impact of the program through the branch campuses, and financing. The final product will describe the way in which the DPA program undertook the task of implementing the Bologna requirements, and the results of that process. Particular attention will be paid to the extent to which the following coordinates will affect the current curricula.

3 Methods: Diagnosis of current situation was done through document analysis, individual interviews, focus groups and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Document analysis included current curricula, mission statement of the DPA, internal programmatic documents and analysis on DPA and BBU. The authors conducted a series of interviews with 24 faculty members. All full-time faculty members of the Department were involved in this project, 14 in Cluj-Napoca and in the three locations of the branch campuses: 3 in Satu Mare ( aprox. 180 km NV Cluj-Napoca), 4 in Bistriţa ( aprox 110 km NE Cluj- Napoca) and 4 in Sfântu Gheorghe (aprox. 250 km SV Cluj-Napoca). They were interviewed in order to identify their position towards the coordinates for analysis: Bologna philosophy, competencies, teaching methods, personnel needs, regional impact of the program through the branch campuses, and financing. Additionally, two focus groups with the faculty members were held in Cluj-Napoca and group interviews with the faculty members took place in each of the branch campuses on the topic under research. Data obtained was applied to define the dimensions used to structure the SWOT analysis, further helping the structuring the DPA curriculum in order to implement the Bologna requirements. The process has lead to an in-depth analysis of the change undertaken by the DPA, thus helping faculty members both to understand the extent of the change and devise in advance approaches to answer the consequences. Results: It should be mentioned firstly that current paper tackles the BP mainly from the perspective of the changes in curricula and their consequences upon the functioning of the DPA. The reason for this choice is that in Romania the focus of the debate was mainly on the length of study and the impact upon the curricula. The first part of the research was dedicated to document analysis. Internal documents of the university and available legislation were considered. The internal bulletin of the University (published monthly) was a good source of information that helped understand the position of the university towards the BP. The issues published between October March 2005 included various documents stating the position of the University, in strong support towards the BP, and encouraging debated at faculty and department level towards analyzing the consequences of the BP. Internal documents of the DPA were taken for analysis. The curricula was once again studied, according to the following characteristics: interdisciplinary character, compatibility to the international standards, combination of theory with practical and applied courses. The Department of Public Administration of the Babes-Bolyai University started in 1995/1996 when the focus of the curricula was on Law courses (72% of courses were basically Law courses- their title was Law of... ). Since academic year of the Department made the decision of changing the curricula, and the curricula had a stronger focus on courses in management, public finances, and administration. In 2001 the curricula had the following structure: 5

4 28% 25% 11% The structure of the curricula 2001 Law Economics Social Sciences General courses Administration Management 20% 8% 8% A similar change in focus happened to a larger or smaller extent during that time in all schools of Public Administration in Romania, as an attempt to overcome the paradigm of the law-based approach and pure institutionalism, and as acknowledgement of the interdisciplinary character of the public administration. The second part of the research consisted of conducting individual interviews with all the faculty members. These interviews aimed to identify the position of faculty members towards BP, their concerns, the skills (competencies) of the graduates of the PA program (both at undergraduate and master level), the relationship between undergraduate and master program, and the situation of the branch campuses. As a result of the interviews several dimensions for the SWOT analysis were established: personnel, students, finances, curricula, competencies (skills), quality of the teaching process, organization/administration of the program, as follows: STRENGTHS -Current curriculum is well balanced; -Current curriculum is compatible to international standards; -Courses of the program are well prepared and structured, with published class materials; -Offering the courses in several languages (Romanian, Hungarian, German) is an attracting point for potential candidates; -3 well- structured Master programs are currently functional, all three developed in cooperation with foreign partners, which represents an attractive point for potential candidates; -High degree of compatibility between 4 years program and 3 years program curricula; -DPA has a solid financial situation. OPPORTUNITIES -Hiring personnel (personnel development) in branch campuses; -Stronger focus on the master program makes it more attractive for potential candidates; -Branch campuses are more attractive because they will offer a full undergraduate curricula and a full-term university diploma 7 ; -Improving the curricula; -Students have more opportunity for individual work; -A shorter time for university studies with WEAKNESSES -In branch campuses there is not enough personnel, especially for the courses previously taught only in Cluj-Napoca; -Teaching courses in several languages ( Romanian, Hungarian, German) can bring personnel problems, because it is difficult to find appropriate personnel able to teach in these languages; -Due to the change in curricula, quantity of workload will increase with approx. 15% in branch campuses; -Current lack of legislation to support master programs could bring difficulties for their further support and development; -Coordination of curricula with other PA schools; -Although the law requires 6, there is no clearly defined profile and specific competencies of the graduates; -Personal attachments of the staff members to the courses previously taught and sentimental reactions to the elimination of their course from the curricula. THREATS -Number of course decreases being taken off the curricula, so some staff could oppose to the change due to its negative effects on their workload; -In Cluj-Napoca the hiring and promotion processes would be affected negatively by the decrease in number of courses in curricula; -Decrease in budget of the DPA due to the smaller number of years in study cycles; -Courses in several languages, in the background of lower funding could increase budget deficits; -During the transition, working with 2 different curricula in

5 increase attractivity of the programs for candidates with less time available for study parallel could raise organizational difficulties: a certain course might have to be taught both for first and third year, attention should be paid to avoid scheduling the same course in different semesters -Due to the lower number of years to study (3 opposed to 4), graduates would be less prepared, would have acquired less skills that in current conditions. Several additional elements were taken into account: -current curricula has 40 courses in total, out of which 28 compulsory and 12 electives; -due to the decrease of the number of years of study, from 4 to 3, the budget will decrease with an estimate 15%-20 %. Current budgeting process allocates funds from the national budget according to a system of coefficients, according to the level of education and to the language in which the program in taught. The reference is the undergraduate student taught in Romanian language, which has a coefficient of 1, a student taught in Hungarian language has a coefficient of 1.25, undergraduate student taught in German has a coefficient of 1.25, and a master student taught in an international language (master programs coordinated by the DPA are taught in English) has a coefficient of 6. the standard amount received from the ministry for a student with coefficient of 1 was in 2004 at 450Euro/academic year; -the change process should take into account that in branch campuses the curricula included 27 courses, out of which 21 compulsory and 6 electives. The transformation according to BP is made in all locations, which means an additional workload in branch campuses and could lead to hiring of personnel. That means 20 lecture teaching hours, which means, according to requirements of the Law, 11 positions of senior lecturer, and 60 hours of seminars, which means 5 positions of teaching assistant; -the number of hours taught per week should not exceed 20; -current prerequisites existent in curricula are useful and we should keep them; -in the branch campus of Satu Mare the curricula is taught in 3 languages (Romanian, Hungarian and German) and in Sfântu-Gheorghe is taught in 2 languages (Romanian and Hungarian). Taking into account all of the above, a first version of the curricula was proposed, then discussed within the two focus groups in Cluj-Napoca and in group interviews in the three branch campuses, and then suggested changes were analyzed and incorporated in the curricula. The proposed curricula to be implemented upon the BP is structured as follows: 21% 21% BP structure of the curricula 11% Law Economics Social Sciences General courses Administration Management 29% 7% 11% The diferences are not too big, which shows that the DPA decided to continue the previous approach of the PA curricula as a interdisciplinary one. The most important changes consist of the decrease of the percentage of the Law

6 courses ( 4%), Management (7%), and in the increase of the Administration courses (9%), and General courses (3%) which shows the choice of the department to offer more courses specific to the field. In above analysis the courses in foreign language (minimum one foreign language is compulsory for the first 2 years of study), physical education (which is also compulsory for the first two years) and the compulsory internship (2 weeks in a public or non-profit organization at the end of each academic year) were not included. Conclusions: Looking to the process and to the results, one can conclude that there were two major dimensions of the process: criteria of the change and conditions of success. 1. Criteria for success: a) Maintaining the interdisciplinary character of the curricula; b) Maintaining the high degree of compatibility to the international standards, with reference in the EU and North America; c) Shifting the more difficult courses at the master level; d) Accepting and implementing the requirements included in the Law, but developing on personal initiative the specific characteristics of the Public Administration; e) Shifting the qualitative focus on the master program; f) For the moment the programs coordinated by DPA maintain their unity, with perspectives for diversity for the future, according to the needs of the branch campuses; 2. Conditions of success: a) Maintaining the profile of the graduate as sketched by the previous curricula: a graduate with an interdisciplinary background, able to adjust to a dynamic environment, which was confirmed by the feedback received from successful graduates currently working in public institutions; b) Distribution of currently existent resources support this change process (financial, personnel, etc); c) Openness of the faculty members towards developing the curricula and restructuring the program according to the BP; d) Future developments towards opening a doctoral program. Overall speaking the process seemed dominated by openness on one hand and by concern on the other one. Among the elements that made the process easier we should mention: the openness of the faculty members, even when their own courses were at stake, the fact that financial status of the department was good, even with the possible losses at the beginning of the process,. However, one element missing here was that the students were not involved, at least not when the discussions were held at this level. There is potential for future changes to involve the students. Additionally, in terms of coordination with other schools of public administration, a meeting of the Romanian Associations of Schools in Public Administration (RASPA) held in December 2004, a little before the Cabined Decision no 88/2004 established the duration of 3 years for the programs in Public Administration, and a second meeting of RASPA in 30 March 2005 agreed the interdisciplinary character of the curricula and on the right of the Departments to establish their own curricula. 1 The Cabinet Decision number 88/2004 established that the length of study at undergraduate level should be (with few exceptions) of 3 years, and the master program should be 2 years. The same document establishes the number and variation of the specializations in which universities are allowed to offer degrees, and included the specialization of Public Administration in the larger field of Social and Political Sciences.

7 The Department of Public Administration of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca coordinates three such branch campuses in Transylvania. 5 Călin Hinţea, Sorin Dan Şandor, East-West Co-operation Models: An Analysis of the Babeş-Bolyai University Public Administration Programme, in Frits van den Berg, Gyorgy Jenei, Lance T. Leloup (ed.s), East-West Cooperation in Public Sector Reform, 2002, p The Law no. 288/2004 establishes the general competencies (skills) needed by the graduates of undergraduate and master programs, and the specific competencies in each field were supposed to be established by the National Conference of the Rectors of the universities. However, this is a debatable requirement, due to the fact that neither professionals of the fields, united in professional associations, nor specialized departments in universities were asked to issue opinions or position papers about these specific competencies. It is hard to believe that the National Conference of the Rectors will have time and availability to debate these specific competencies. According to the Cabinet Decision No.88/2004, the number of the fields in which Universities are allowed to offer degrees decreased from approximately 350 to approximately 70, and thus the establishing of the specific competencies would take a lot of time and effort. 7 Currently they offer what is called short-term university diploma, which is somewhat less valued than the fullterm university diploma.