DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CAPACITIES FOR RESEARCH AND TEACH/LEARN TOOLS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, USING THE NEW FINANCING FUNDS IN ROMANIA

Higher education financing in Romania faces in general the same problems about public underfinancing (resulting in the necessity to meet needs by supplementary funding) as other similar institutions in EU Member States. In the broader context of higher education internationalization, the increasing number of educational offers of universities abroad, of Romanian students having access to courses and scholarships offered by prestigious universities abroad, the Romanian universities attempt to access financial resources that might allow the development of research capacity and the development and application of new teaching/learning technologies. An increasing number of universities access funds as beneficiaries or partners in research, development and innovation projects in order to offer students the chance to learn with the help of the newest educational technologies. The efforts of Romanian universities are focused on adapting curricula and subject to meet the market demands (of employers and students) but also harmonising their programs to programs developed in similar universities in Europe. Through these tendencies to improve resources and increase development capacity to answer market needs, the Romanian universities and the Romanian public policies in the field of higher education join European universities efforts and public policies to increase the autonomy of financial resources management, to encourage the diversification of financing sources and the creation of inter-university partnerships with a view to increasing educational competitiveness. From this perspective the universities permanently have in view the correlation between rigorous results-focused financial management and curricular management adapted to market demands. This paper focuses on the analysis of types of financing accessed by Romanian universities and their channelling towards the development of new teaching/learning technologies but also on the focus of Romanian higher education management towards research/development projects. We also intend to analyse the students' personal development needs, the identification of changes in the curriculum following their requests, the identification of accompanying costs and the identification of financial sources for the development of new teaching/learning technologies requested by students.