Planning policy
National educational planning regarding recruitment of the teachers applies only to Pre-academic education.
Entry to the profession
The employment on a teaching or research position can be for a fixed period or for an indefinite period. The employment for an indefinite period on any teaching or research position is possible only through a public competition, organized by the higher education institution, after obtaining the title of doctor (law 1/2011, art. 294).
The selection, recruitment and appointment process for teaching positions in higher education is based on an open recruitment procedure.
This means that the accredited or provisory authorised higher education institutions are fully responsible for organising and carrying on the entire selection, recruitment and appointment process for their teaching positions. Nevertheless, the process has to comply with the general provisions of the Law. The open recruitment procedure has to be based on a competition opened to all persons complying with the conditions established for the considered teaching position. The results of the competition are valid only for the organising higher education institution.
According to Decision no 457/4 May 2011, all vacant teaching positions must be publishd within the first 30 days since the beginning of the ever university semester. The announcement regarding the organization of the competition shall be published at least two months before the date of the first competition. The registration for the contest begins on the day of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania of the position taken at the competition and ends with 15 calendar days before the first competition event is held.
At least the following information will be published on the official website: a description of the position; the attributions / activities related to the position, including the didactic norm and the types of activities included in the didactic norm, in the case of didactic posts, respectively the research norm; the calendar of the competition; the topics of the competition tests, including lectures, courses or the like, or the topics from which the competition commission can choose the topic of the evidence actually supported; description of the competition procedure; the complete list of the documents that the candidates must include in the competition file; the address to which the contest file must be sent.
The competition commissions comprise permanent teachers from and/or outside the higher education institution and is approved by the faculty council or the university senate. The competition commission is made up of 5 members, including its president, specialists in the field of the position put out to the competition or in close domains.
The professional competences of the candidate are evaluated by the competition commission on the basis of the competition file and, additionally, by one or more competition tests, including different types of lectures, according to their own methodology.
Based on the framework methodology and the legislation in force, the universities establish their own methodology for conferring titles and occupying teaching and research positions, which is approved by the university senate. This methodology cannot refer to seniority and cannot discriminate between persons outside the institution or the country in relation to the persons in the institution or in the country. (Law 1/2011, art. 297).
The results of the competitions are approved by the university senate, and the positioning is done from the first day of the semester following the competition.
The competitions are different depending on the methodologies of each university that must comply with the provisions of CNADTCU and the Decision No. 457 of May 4, 2011 concerning the on the Framework Methodology for filling vacant teaching and research positions in higher education.
Vacant teaching positions can be occupied temporarily, subject to annual re-confirmation, by:
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the permanent teachers of the respective higher education institution or,
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associate teachers.
Appointment of associate teachers is accomplished through competition organised by the chair or the department and consisting of at least an interview and presentation of the CV.
The competition methodology is approved by the university senate.
Appointment of the associate teachers is accomplished through decision of the rector.
Professional status
Staff in higher education is (Law 1/2011, art.291):
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teaching staff: the teaching staff consists of teaching / research teaching staff, auxiliary teaching / research staff from universities, university libraries and central university libraries; "teaching and research staff" means personnel who legally hold one of the aforementioned university or research degrees
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non-teaching staff.
In relation to the working relationships established with the higher education institution, the teaching staff may be: permanent or associate.
In relation to the participation in the teaching process and the degree of professional training, the teaching staff can be: teaching staff or auxiliary teaching staff.
By "permanent teaching staff" means teaching staff that holds a teaching function in a university, obtained by competition, for an indefinite period. The teaching and research staff employed for a certain period have the status of associate teacher and research.
The permanent status exists only in relation to a single higher education institution or a single research-development institution; when a teacher carries out didactic or scientific research activities in several higher education or research-development institutions, the permanent status can only be in one of them, and in the other, the quality is as associate teacher or researcher.
According to the existing academic needs, the higher education institutions can appoint for a limited period of time specialists with recognised value in the country and abroad as profesor asociat invitat. Appointment of the profesor asociat invitat is endorsed by the council of the department or of the faculty and is approved by the administrative council (Law 1/2011, art.296)
Salaries
The salary of the teaching and research staff is made according to the legislation in force and the decisions of the university senate (Law 1/2011, art. 327). The salary of the teaching and research staff is also made according to its results and performances ((Law 1/2011, art. 303).
The criteria for salaries in higher education are:
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teaching position
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academic title
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teaching norm
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quality of the professional performance as established based on the annual individual evaluation
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recognised seniority in education
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specific working conditions.
Teachers in management, guidance and control positions benefit of specific indemnities differentiated according to the position and the working conditions.
Working time and holidays
The attributions of the teaching staff in higher education include the following:
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teaching activities, seminars, practical works, practical training and evaluation activities – according to the frame curricula and the syllabi
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activities for scientific and methodological preparation as well as other activities in the interest of education
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scientific research, technological development, design activities and artistic creation, according to the specialisation.
The concrete activities are established in the job-description for the corresponding teaching position.
The template of the job-description is provided within the collective labour contracts – negotiated between the teachers’ trade unions and the Ministry of Education, the higher education institutions.
The job-description is personalised and signed following negotiations between the head of the chair/department and the teachers and it becomes an annex of the individual labour contract.
The job-description represents the basis for individual evaluation of teachers' professional performances.
The teaching norms for the teaching staff in higher education can include the following (according the Law1/2011, Art. 287(2)):
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teaching activities
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seminars, annual projects, practical and laboratory work
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Coordination of bachelor final dissertation
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Coordination of master final dissertation
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Coordination of doctoral final dissertation
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other teaching activities, research projects
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coordination of artistic or sport activities
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evaluation activities
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tutoring activities, councelling, coordination of student activities, and students guideing in achieving of ECTS
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participation to councils and commissions in the interest of education.
The weekly teaching norm is quantified in conventional periods and cannot exceed 16 periods per week.
The teaching norm is established according to the frame curricula and is calculated as average weekly teaching norm, regardless of the period of the year when is effectively accomplished.
The average weekly teaching norm is calculated as the ratio of the total number of conventional periods in the job-description to the number of weeks established in the frame curriculum for all the teaching and seminar activities of the academic year.
The conventional hour is the equivalent of one teaching hour during seminars, laboratory activities, practical works or other similar activities.
In higher education the lecture-hour for bachelor level is the equivalent of 2 conventional periods.
In higher education the lecture-hour for master and doctoral level as well as in higher education with complete tuition in a foreign language (not referring to languages of the national minorities) – the lecture-hour is the equivalent of 2.5 conventional periods and the seminar-hour (or other similar activities) is the equivalent of 1.5 conventional periods.
Directors of doctoral studies benefit of 0.5 conventional periods per week for each student.
Evaluation activities are quantified in conventional periods according to the methodology approved by the university senate.
The minimum weekly teaching norm is established as follows (conventional periods):
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Professor (Profesor universitar): 7 periods per week (minimum 4 periods lecture)
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Associate professor (Conferenţiar universitar): 8 periods per week (minimum 4 periods lecture)
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Lecturer (Lector universitar/Sef de lucrări): 10periods per week (minimum 2 periods lecture)
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Assistant lecturer (Asistent universitar): 11periods per week.
According the Law 1/2011, Art. 287 (14) and (15), for the teaching staff that do not perform scientific research or equivalent activities, the teaching norm is increased, without over-passing aximum periods per week. All the previously exceptions mentioned are approved by the council of the faculties. In the case that a teaching norm cannot be accomplished according to the provisions of the law, the activity of the respective teaching position is completed with scientific research activities at the proposal of the head of the chair and subject to the agreement of the faculty council. The diminution of the can be maximum 1/2 of the respective teaching norm and the research hour is the equivalent of 0.5 conventional periods. Alternatively, a teacher can be transferred, temporarily and upon request, with the entire norm in scientific research within the respective chair or department. In both these cases the considered teacher preserves the permanent status over the teaching position – as obtained following appointment through open competition.
Promotion, advancement
In higher education, the successive teaching positions may be considered as stages in the career development.
In order to advance from one teaching position to the next one, teachers have to comply with certain conditions and have to pass a competition organised by the higher education institution (open recruitment procedure).
Management positions in higher education are as follows:
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Management structures within university:
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University Senat and admisistration council
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Faculty council
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Department council.
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Management positions in higher education are as follows:
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Rector and pro-rector of the higher education institution
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Faculty dean and pro-dean; director of the university college
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Head of the department.
According to the provisions of law, all management structures and management positions in higher education are elected through secret suffrage for a 4-year period.
Candidates are expected to have distinguished professional, managerial and moral qualities and to hold high teaching positions in the academic hierarchy.
Retirement and pensions
Teachers benefit of:
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pension for the work accomplished and age limit
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for loss of work capacity, as well as of
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supplementary pension and other social insurance rights.
Family members can benefit in the conditions of the law of successor pension.
The teaching and research staff are retired at the age of 65. (Law 1/2011, art. 289)
As a general rule, teachers can retire only at the end of the academic year.
Under special circumstances teachers may retire during the academic year – subject to the approval of the University Senate.
Teaching staff can continue teaching / scientific ativity in higher education after the age of retirement, with the approval of the University Senate. The university senate can decide to confer the honorary title of emeritus professor, for didactic and research excellence, to the teachers who have reached the retirement age. Retired teachers can be paid on an hourly basis.
According to the law, teachers at all levels of education employed over the retirement age-limit benefit of an additional allowance to their pension, corresponding to the period they have been employed over the retirement age-limit.