Press magazine – April 19 2023

In the context of a shortage of teaching staff, the universities in Timișoara are looking for options to bring Romanian teachers who work abroad to the students.

The rector of the Western University of Timișoara says that it is already a certainty that there will be Romanian researchers going abroad who, in one form or another, will contribute to the training of students.

"This will be a certainty, the fact that territorial and regional criteria or physical neighborhoods disappear through this online area. We are one click away from every researcher and we have many developed programs through which we bring guest professors, teaching training programs, researchers to come for a week, a month, a year, for a period that they want and have the opportunity , to integrate into the teaching and research mode of UVT. And we already have point-by-point discussions with such researchers who will come.”, said Marilen Pirtea.

However, a few things need to be fixed, admits Pirtea: "A researcher from Germany procures the necessary substances in 5 days, here in 5 months through bureaucratic procedures. What researchers need is more decision-making power, more resources and less red tape.”

The Polytechnic University of Timișoara expects that the new education law will make the employment conditions of teachers in the school more flexible. Rector Florin Drăgan believes that entrepreneurs or researchers who have gone abroad would have a relevant experience to share with students.

"I would like to be able to bring people from the diaspora to the Polytechnic to hold classes or conduct research. I would like to have two or three personalities who want to come back, but that will be more difficult because there are also personal situations that you have no way of solving. We propose this because they, coming from a different organizational culture, can only help us. (…) To entrepreneurs – one who is successful will not come to teach again. You also have some conditions, you need a doctorate, he doesn't have it, but he doesn't have patience either. Because he developed 3 businesses and is always on the road, running between them, he won't have time to come and hold another course.", Florin Drăgan, rector of UPT, told expressdebanat.

His name is Robert Chiș Ciure and he is from Zalău. Award winner forever, in love with philosophy. Today he is one of the Romanian researchers who chose to leave the country in order to develop his career.

After finishing high school, Robert chose to attend the University of Bucharest courses. He left the country for the first time, for studies, at the age of 21. Today, at 29 years old, he does research in neuroscience, but not in Romania, but in Spain.

"I am a philosophy graduate, I obtained a doctorate last year at the University of Bucharest, but my path is somewhat atypical for a philosopher. I went to France with an Erasmus grant, after which, through the Romanian Cultural Institute, I went to Finland. With a Fulbright scholarship, also for my doctorate, I went to America, to neuroscience laboratories. I am now working as a neuroresearcher at the Center for Neurosciences and Ethics in Madrid and doing a second post-doc in New York.”, the young philosopher told.

"I'm not going to hide. There was a faint smile when people asked me where I was from and I answered that I was from Romania"

Robert also revealed to us how philosophy reconciles with neuroscience, but also how he was received in laboratories abroad.

"I think philosophy has a moderating role over neuroscience in many ways. Philosophy provides certain conceptual tools that better organize and ground theoretical insights from neuroscience that come to explain certain phenomena that can be put into an experimental context. I believe that there is always a gradation from philosophical principles to empirical principles that can finally be tested by experiment, and especially in certain problems such as the one of consciousness that I am dealing with. This interdisciplinarity is not an option, but a necessity. There needs to be a dialogue, and the fact that there are people like me who have managed to get a position in neuroscience labs, even though I have no training in neuroscience per se, but have demonstrated that I can speak at a certain level of complexity shows that today's world she is aware that interdisciplinary barriers are osmotic, they allow real transition, not just declarative, institutional, with money given to people who do not come from one specialized field, but from another, but who can contribute significantly.", Robert explained.

The last weekend of April brings the festival to the Royal Domain from Săvârșin Soul of Romania, an event that encourages Romanian artisans to connect with the community and helps the inhabitants of this country to discover the small local producers, the authentic traditions and customs of the Romanian village.

The event is initiated by Profi to encourage the community to connect to the authentic values, good tastes and traditions of the Romanian village through experiences lived in a natural setting in which the rural world is recreated as it should be known by the younger generations . This Profi initiative is part of the tripartite agreement "We Grow Communities", signed by the Royal Family of Romania, the "Mihai I" University of Life Sciences in Timișoara and the Profi store chain to support local producers and preserve authentic and traditional Romanian handicrafts.

The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Boloş, participated on Thursday, together with the President Klaus Iohannis and the Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, in the working visit to RESS - Renewable Energy School of Skills in Constanța.

According to a press release from the competent ministry, courses for the qualification and retraining of adults are taught within the RESS, dedicated to technicians working in the renewable energy industry, especially wind energy and photovoltaic solar energy.

In the 14 years of activity, the school from Constanţa has trained over 10.000 people.

"The training of specialists in the field of green energy and in that of new technologies is extremely important for employers, for the economic development of Romania, but first of all for the people. European funds have supported the development of Romanians and we continue this strategic approach in the multi-annual financial exercise as well 2021-2027. Concretely, through the Education and Employment Program we invest 4,34 billion euros in education, training and qualification, supporting young people, inactive people, the long-term unemployed and vulnerable categories on the labor market.

This Program will ensure support for approximately one million Romanians to become active on the labor market, being trained in jobs sought after on the labor market such as those in the field of renewable energy, but also for other fields in which the technological advance will lead to the need for specialists ", pointed out the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Boloş.

In the 2014-2020 programming period, the Human Capital Operational Program with an allocation of 4,59 billion euros provided financing in the field.

Marathon debates on the amendments to the education laws, daily, between 9-21, from Wednesday, April 19, until next Thursday, April 27, if the Permanent Bureau approves the request made by the president of the education committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Natalia Intotero. Tuesday, April 18, is the last day on which amendments can be brought to the draft Education laws, in the education committee of the Chamber of Deputies. According to the originally established calendar, the plenary vote was to take place on April 26. If the request for extended debates is approved, the deadline for voting will be exceeded by at least one day. If the vote does not take place on Friday, April 28, it will most likely be on May 2.

The president of the education committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Natalia Intotero, submitted on Tuesday a request to the Permanent Bureau requesting the extension of the work schedule for the debates in the committee on the draft Education laws. Thus, if the Permanent Bureau approves the request, there will be debates 12 hours a day, from Wednesday, April 19, including Saturday, April 22, until Thursday, April 27 for discussions on amendments.

"We are living in complicated times in which economic and social transformations are taking place, accompanied by deep reconfiguration of business models and work processes. The current overlapping crises (the conflict in Ukraine, the energy crisis, inflation, the climate crisis, the aging of the population) represent only one part, in -important truth, due to the causes of these transformations.They are, however, to a large extent also the result of a natural advance of knowledge and technology, and especially of the digital transformation.

Therefore, these transformations should not be seen exclusively as the unwanted result of unfortunate developments and events triggered by random adverse factors, but to a good extent also as adaptation to evolutionary changes in human society. Technological improvements and changes in the functioning of economic mechanisms and society are ultimately the answer to the challenges generated by the insufficiency of resources, the increasingly powerful disruptive effects of human activities on the dynamics of the planetary ecosystem and the dynamics of the population.

However, these processes have become increasingly accelerated in recent years and the shocks generated by the pandemic and then by the increase in geopolitical tensions and war have amplified their impact on the economy and society.

That is why the adaptation effort is significant and strongly felt by the population, inducing additional stress in the functioning of the systems and additional short-term pressure on resources (including financial). The changes we are going through are perceived as an acute pressure by society and the economic environment, either because they are too fast, or because they require a difficult redesign of the way we used to do things until now, or because in the long term short and maybe even medium involves costs of all kinds. However, adaptation is necessary because, under the new conditions, the old way of doing things becomes increasingly unsustainable.

Romanians must expect that the expansion of artificial intelligence projects in Romanian society will bring drastic changes, which exceed imagination, generated by the digital revolution and the communication revolution. However, the introduction of new artificial intelligence technologies in Romania will represent a real cultural shock, which will catch many Romanians off guard, says, in an exclusive interview for Gândul, Dumitru Borțun, doctor of philosophy and university professor at the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations of the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest (SNSPA).

• In a microseries dedicated to artificial intelligence, Gândul presents the opinions of specialists from various fields, so that we can better evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of invading our lives with AI (artificial intelligence).
• In the first episode, university professor Dr. Mircea Dumitru, specialist in cognitive science (philosophy of mind), explained the genesis of artificial intelligence and its degree of usefulness for the human being. Artificial intelligence, which is largely based on statistical methods and machine learning, cannot replace human natural intelligence at all, because it cannot have a deep understanding of language, existential meanings and the world around us, claims Mircea Dumitru .
• In this second episode, the explanations come from university professor Dumitru Borțun, a specialist in communication studies, who talks about the impact of artificial intelligence on past generations and digital natives, about the profound changes it will bring to society.

Romania had a job vacancy rate of 0,9% in the third quarter of 2022. In last place was Bulgaria, with a job vacancy rate of 0,8% ♦ Romania is part of a group of EU countries where the unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2022 was less than 2%, according to a report by the Eurofound foundation ♦ The document does not explain where these differences come from, but there are only two explanations : either jobs, in Romania, for example, are not put on the market because they are offered black, or the job offer is very thin ♦ In this group, the vacancy rate has only registered small increases in the last decade, the key problems of the labor market being high levels of unemployment and informal employment rather than a generalized labor shortage.

The lack of labor force is an obstacle in the activity of many employers in the member countries of the European Union. Thus, the labor shortage limits production and the provision of services in several sectors, and the fight for talent is particularly acute in countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands, shows a report by Eurofound - the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions Work and Life.

The National Conference of the Body of Chartered Accountants and Chartered Accountants in Romania took place at the beginning of April. During the meeting, the new president of the accountants in Romania was elected.

National Conference of the Body of Accounting Experts and Chartered Accountants from Romania (CECCAR) took place on April 4, when the president of the institution was also elected. It's about Elena-Catherine Chivu, certified accountant, ex CHAIRMAN of CECCAR Galati Branch and member in The superior council of CECCAR. During the conference, the president of the Higher Disciplinary Commission of CECCAR and new members who complete the Commission were also voted. In addition, the establishment of two new structures at the level was also validated CECCAR. These are the Advisory Committee and the Audit Committee.

"Let us remain a united and strong profession. Let's stay whole at heart. I'm a team player who, even when he can't do it anymore, he can do a little more. We will work together to further promote the good image of our profession and the professional body that represents it," said Ecaterina Chivu. During the conference, the activity report of the institution for the year 2022 was analyzed. In addition, CECCAR's directions of action for the year 2023 were also approved.