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Description
The problem addressed of the project is the low level of financial transparency of Romanian universities which determines a very low students participation in decisions-making related to the allocation of resources. To analyze issues related to university funding, one must undertake real investigative work. Even if, there are laws that guarantee transparency, these aspects are not implemented accessible to the public, much less to young people aged 18-22 without accounting competencies. The Coalition for Clean Universities concludes in a report "universities do not comply with transparency criteria, making it difficult to for the wide public to access it."
These problems are also reported by the Court of Auditors or in court decisions on various cases (eg recent increases in tuition fees). The project comes to improve the transparency of universities by publishing in an interactive, modern, user-friendly way , university budgets so that any student in Romania knows how resources are allocated in his university. In addition, the project provides: a National Report, three university reports, 3 articles, infographics, seminars and national debates all meant to put more pressure for transparency.
At the same time, through advocacy campaigns and training, the project empowers students to understand financial data and advocate for better resource allocation. Students, within the "intervention teams" will support proposals to change the allocation of resources according to their needs, also in meetings with decision makers. The beneficiaries of the activities are, first of all, the students but, indirectly, the entire academic community and, more generally, the general public. The most valuable asset brought by the partner is the relationship with the students target in the project, ANOSR being a federation of student organizations, will significantly contribute to the involvement of the target group in the project.
Summary of project results
The project ''''University Observatory: Students for the Transparency of University Budgets'''' aimed to contribute to the transparency of university budgets in Romania and the improvement of good governance, including by empowering the younger generation of students, the problem addressed by the project being the low level of financial transparency of universities in Romania, which determines a low involvement of students in decisions related to the allocation of resources within universities. Moreover, although according to the legislation such data are public, they are generally inaccessible to the general public.
To achieve the project''s goal, the promoter developed within A3 an online platform for monitoring the budgets of universities in Romania - https://buget-universitati.ro/despre. In its implementation, a set of technical specifications (objectives, interfaces, functionalities) was developed, and an expert was co-opted who developed the set of indicators that formed the basis of it and other project deliverables and developed the database uploaded as a structure on the web page. The data were manually extracted from the budget executions of all universities available on the Ministry of Finance platform, through requests addressed to universities based on Law 544/2001 and by studying the public reports of the CNFIS (National Council for Higher Education Financing). Finally, the web platform includes 26 financial indicators that can be viewed interactively. Also within this activity, a Guide for students on financing higher education at the national level was developed (attached to the report comments). Within A4 - Proposals for improving public policies for financing higher education - and based on the financial data collected within activity A3, a Report on Financing Higher Education was prepared, which includes financial analyses, analysis of public policies and how they are implemented according to the data (available here https://cpedu.ro/rapoarte-cu-privire-la-finantarea-invatamantului-superior/). The report also contains three budgetary analyses of the universities selected within the project - the Maritime University of Constanta, the Lower Danube University of Galati, and the Technical University of Constructions Cluj-Napoca. The reports also include proposals for improving public funding: core funding, additional funding, and institutional funding - these subsequently substantiate the negotiations of the ANOSR partner at the national level and the official positions of the structure, materialized in particular in two public policy proposals launched by the project partner - "ANOSR proposals for the introduction of additional equivalence coefficients used for the financing of students enrolled in a bachelor''s or master''s degree program" - and "ANOSR proposals regarding the general criteria for granting student scholarships". By the end of the project, these proposals were taken into account in the development of the new legislation (Higher Education Law as well as subsequent methodologies). Within A5, advocacy at the local level - 15 students from the above universities were selected and 6 mentors were co-opted to form 3 intervention teams at the local level. They carried out mentoring activities, working directly with students on specific issues in each university, developing an advocacy plan that included SMART objectives, and facilitating meetings with university decision-makers. After the mentoring activities, the students had a negotiation simulation (based on the objectives set in the advocacy plan) with the university management. All 3 groups of students negotiated directly with the rector and vice-rectors of the universities who are responsible for the financial aspects of the institutions or directors of various departments. The A6 Training - Advocacy in Education - took place in July 2023 and brought together 22 participants from 10 state universities in Romania. The participants were grouped and developed 10 advocacy plans that targeted issues relevant to the needs of students, such as: wellbeing, career guidance and counseling centers, campus security, lack of infrastructure, conditions in dormitories, etc. Within A7, national advocacy - the 22 students (involved in A6) received guidance in developing plans, participated in meetings with public authority officials and 3 public position papers were published. Within A8, strategic development activity, an online library was developed in which educational publications were mapped https://bpe.cpedu.ro, a strategic Vision Camp was organized, a new organizational strategy and an internal operating regulation were developed.
The problem addressed by the project was the low level of financial transparency of the universities in Romania, which causes a very low involvement of students in decisions related to the allocation of resources within the universities. Thus, to increase the involvement of students, the partners carried out the following activities: we selected 3 public universities from which we selected 33 students who benefited from mentoring to be involved in advocacy activities at the local level. Also for these universities, they produced reports on the funding of higher education, and seminars and meetings were organized with decision-makers in Cluj, Galați, and Constanța. At the national level, a report was made on the general situation of higher education funding, which was the basis of a training session with 19 students from the main university centers in the country. They developed advocacy plans and participated in meetings with educational decision-makers. In parallel, we developed a platform regarding the funding of higher education in Romania that includes financial data from the budgets of all state universities. The data were collected by a statistician both from public sources and from requests addressed to all state universities (buget-universitati.ro). The project also had an organizational development component that included a vision field for updating the organization''s internal documents as well as an online tool: a public policy library https://bpe.cpedu.ro/. The activities were communicated especially online, and on social media accounts, gathering numerous views to the published posts.