Romania participates at various cooperation programmes and bilateral and multilateral initiatives in the area of education and professional development – organized based on the international conventions in the field and on the Romanian legislation. These programmes and initiatives promote the exchange of good practices, the harmonization of legislation, the joint coordination of the education policies and strategies, the curriculum, the institutional evaluation and development, the teacher training, etc. The direct exchange of teachers, researchers, students and pupils is considered a key element in the development of multicultural awareness and cultural dialogue.

Focusing on the development of the quality of education and on the international dimension of the pre-university and higher education, Romania participates at the European Union programmes in the area of education and professional development. The main purpose is the development of the European dimension of education, the encouragement of mobility and the facilitation of direct cooperation between the education institutions.

The Ministry of National Education has concluded a series of international cooperation agreements with various states, promoting the exchanges of good practices, the harmonization of legislative frameworks, the coordination of educational policies and strategies, in the area of curriculum elaboration, institutional development, teacher evaluation, teacher training. The direct exchanges of teachers, specialists, researchers, students and pupils are basic elements of the development of multiculturalism and cultural dialogue.

The cooperation programmes and the international initiatives in the field of education and professional development are coordinated at national level by the Ministry of National Education through specialized structures and national agencies:

The General Directorate of International and European Relations 

The General Directorate of International and European Relations - conducts and coordinates the activities of the Ministry of Education in the field of international and European affairs, to gain more respect for Romanian education, through participation in meetings, conventions, conferences and international and European forums, through adherence to commitments assumed under bilateral and multilateral agreements in education and training, as well as through an exchange of good practices. It also develops and implements the education policy of the Romanian state concerning the admission to study in Romania for Romanian citizens from all over the world and facilitates enrolment in Romanian schools and higher education institutions for citizens of the EU countries and non-EU countries.

The National Center for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas

The National Center for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas - was established based on the Government Decision No 49/1999 and functions as a department of the Ministry of Education. Its main duties are:

• to recognise study documents issued abroad,
• to develop regulations and methodologies concerning the recognition of study documents issued abroad,
• to approve higher education study documents either for certification purposes – for those countries that are not part of the Apostille Convention – or for affixing the Hague apostille, 
• to represent Romania in the EU institutions with regard to academic and professional recognition.

The National Centre for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas is a member of the NARIC network of diploma recognition information centres, a European Commission initiative that allows an ongoing national and international exchange of information and counselling on education systems and the legal status of educational institutions abroad, their training provision, as well as the requirements set by these institutions for study documents. 

The Romanian NARIC centre was created on 1 December 1995, based on the Agreement No 95-PECO-SOC-0019 with the European Commission, as a part of the SOCRATES National Agency. The National Centre for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas is:

• the national coordinator for transposing Directive 2005/36/CE on the recognition of professional qualifications,
• an assistance centre for the recognition of professional qualifications,
• the coordinator of a legislation area for IMI PQ Romania and a deputy coordinator for education services,
• a member of the ENIC network of diploma recognition information centres, an initiative of the Council of Europe and UNESCO, created under the Lisbon Convention on the recognition of diplomas, 
• cooperates with other ENIC/NARIC national information centres and other international organisations, such as UNESCO-CEPES, IAU.
  
   

The Agency for Credits and Scholarships

The Agency for Credits and Scholarships - was established in 2009 (Government Decision No 1402/2009, with its subsequent amendments and additions) through a re-organisation of the National Centre for Scholarships Abroad (the former National Office for Scholarships Abroad), a specialised body of central public administration – a public institution with legal person status under the Ministry of Education. The mission of the Agency for Credits and Scholarships is:

• to ensure the access to studies abroad for Romanian citizens, for training and specialisation purposes,
• to ensure the management of the credit system for students of public and accredited private higher education institutions, enrolled in full-time Bachelor’s degree and master degree programmes, 
• the access of school students, university students, graduates of accredited educational institutions, teachers with tenure and other categories of beneficiaries to scholarships/grants offered to the Ministry of Education by the Government of Romania, public authorities, foundations, donors – natural persons or legal persons – and by different states in the framework of bilateral cooperation agreements or unilaterally, as well as their access to scholarships/grants in the framework of governmental and international programmes, and
• an optimal implementation of national and European educational values and policies.
  
   

The National Agency for Community Programmes in the Field of Education and Vocational Training

The National Agency for Community Programmes in the Field of Education and Vocational Training - is a public institution under the Ministry of Education, which was established by the Government Decision No 76 of 27 January 2005.

Subsequently, with the Government Decision No 67/2007, the Agency was assigned to implement the EU programmes Lifelong Learning (LLP), Youth in Action (YiA) and Erasmus Mundus in the period 2007-2013. This decision included into ANPCDEFP also the Europass National Centre, the Eurydice National Unit and the Eurodesk National Office.

In 2013, with the Government Memorandum No 10988 of 9 December 2013, the Agency was assigned to implement the Erasmus+ programme in the period 2014-2020. Therefore, as from 2014, ANPCDEFP has coordinated the implementation in Romania of the Erasmus+ programme, which continues the previous generation of European programmes in the field of education and training.

Moreover, ANPCDEFP is the operator of the Education, Scholarships, Apprenticeships and Youth Entrepreneurship Programme 2014-2021, which is funded through an EEA mechanism, and it also handles the European Solidarity Corps.

In 2022, the Agency also takes over the organisation and monitoring of e-Twinning activities. 

The mission of ANPCDEFP is to administer European funding programmes that support the national project for changing communities, attitudes and individuals’ mentalities for the better. 

In every school inspectorate, in the management and institutional development functional area, there is a division for European programmes and European integration projects, with at least one school inspector assigned full-time to educational projects, with responsibilities related to the implementation of the Erasmus+ programme, at county level and in Bucharest.

The European Union programmes in the field of education and professional development are coordinated locally by the school inspectorates and by the higher education institutions.

The internationalization of the education is a process with two main related components:

• internationalization at home

• internationalization abroad.

The internationalization at home consists in strategies and approaches for developing intercultural skills and understandings of the global context, and the internationalization abroad or overseas mainly refers to the cross-boundary mobility of the students, the teaching staff, the researchers and the projects initiated by institutions from various countries.

The higher education institutions are encouraged to develop supplementary mobility options, such as the virtual mobility or to allow the immobile students to have an international experience at home.

Another practical manifestation of the concept of internationalization at home is the presence of foreign experts for evaluation activities in the higher education institutions and in various bodies, councils and committees for the evaluation activities represents an opportunity for the higher education institutions to share experience and added value.