Higher music education in Romania in the context of the European Higher Education Area: an analysis from the lecturer’s perspective

ABSTRACT

The academic context of Romanian higher education music lecturers has not yet completely overcome the influence of the socio-political scenario from before the fall of the communist system. This contributes to the international isolation of Rumaniańs higher music education, marginalising its institutions from the European Higher Education Area. This paper presents a study featuring the opinions of 470 Romanian university lecturers at eight higher institutions regarding the overall situation of higher music education. About seventy percent of participants stated that the current higher education system is worse than 30 years ago. A cluster analysis showed that the most important challenges facing the Romanian education system are insufficient funding and the need to promote more postgraduate studies. The situation described could be useful to revise the curriculum in order to align Romanian higher music education with the standards of the European Higher Education Area.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• music education
• Romania
• lecturers
• postcommunism

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the 470 university music lecturers and 8 higher institutions in Romania for their participation in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oswaldo Lorenzo

Oswaldo Lorenzo University Professor and Vice-Dean of Research, International Projects and Transfer at the Faculty of Education and Sport Sciences of Melilla (University of Granada, Spain). Extraordinary Doctorate Award in Education Sciences (UNED). Third National Prize for Educational Research 2004 (Spanish Ministry of Education and Science-CIDE). Four CNEAI research segments in the area of Educational Sciences. General coordinator of the european ECALFOR project – “Evaluation of teacher training in Latin America and the Caribbean. Quality assurance of education degrees”. Referencia: 618625-EPP-1-2020-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP. Director of 16 doctoral theses of national and foreign students. Author of scientific publications in JCR journals: Psicodidáctica, Infancia y Aprendizaje, Comunicar, Educación XX1… Evaluator for the agencies AVAP, ACSUG and Fundación madrid+d. Director of the journal Publicaciones de la Universidad de Granada (Web of Science and Scopus-SJR).

Ioana R. Turcu

Ioana R. Turcu After graduating from the Music Academy in Bucharest, Ioana Turcu completed her studies in Switzerland at Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater Bern, where she achieved the Konzert Diploma studying with Heidi Peter Indermuhle. She participated as an active student in master classes with: Pierre Ives Artaud, Mathias Ziegler, Alan Weiss and Marina Piccinini. In 2015 she obtained the European PhD in Music granted “cum laude” by the University of Granada, Spain, where she also acts as a member of the research group in the European PhD Program “Educacion musical- una perspectiva multidisciplinar”, publishing papers and studies in scientific magazines. She is in possesion of various national prizes (1990 – 1994 First Prize at the national music competitions, 1993 – First Prize at the International Woodwind Competition, Brasov, 1994 – First Prize at Darclee Festival, Pitesti and Mozart Festival, Constanta) and of international prizes such as the First Prize at the Woodwind Competition from Riddes, Switzerland in 2002 and also in 2003, “The musician of the year in Switzerland” given by Berner Haller Loge. Ioana Turcu acted as the flute teacher at the master classes Eduardo Ocon, Malaga, Spain from 2007 until 2010. Between 2007 and 2011 she was teaching at “St. George’s” British School from Malaga, Spain. She was mentor in IconArts academy from 2015 until 2019. Currently she is working as a flute teacher at the National Music College “George Enescu” from Bucharest.