self evaluation report - Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicină ...

The University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca main campus, of about 16
hectares, is situated in the west part of the city, including a 6 hectares park and a botanical garden. The second
campus, for food science, is close to the central one, making the university one of the most compact campuses
in the area. The university owns more than 1.000 hectares of land for teaching and experimental research, and
students practice, organized in a Teaching and experimental research Station, with four locations within Cluj
neighborhood, where more than 1,000 students practice 10 months out of a year.
Being situated in the central part of Transylvania (85.000 km 2 ) and the only agricultural university in this area,
the university receives most of its students (78%) from this important agricultural region. The rest of the
students are coming from the other parts of the country, being attracted by the quality of the studies and the
city opportunities.
2.4. Current regional and national labor market situation
The Romanian labor market has changed significantly since the 90’s, being strongly affected by the transition
to the market economy, EU membership, the reduction of the heavy industry and the existing centralized
agricultural system. Despite all these inconveniences Cluj county is nowadays one of the most dynamic region
of Romania, having a major contribution to the economic development, mainly due of its highly qualified
human resources. Cluj-Napoca, a university City with four universities ranked within the first class of
“advanced research and education”, has a low unemployment rate, of less than 2%, offering for the local
agriculture and the private sector new job opportunities. We need to consider that agriculture, even with the
dramatically reduction of the agricultural population, from 42% in the 90’s to 31% nowadays and probably
15% in 2025, will remain important for Romania. It has to be underlined that one third of our students families
own agricultural land.
2.5. Structure, students and staff
USAMV Cluj-Napoca is using for more than ten years the Bologna system, with a particular BSc of four years
(4+2+3). The 1 st and 2 nd study cycles are organized as full-time or long distance/reduced frequency (part-time)
study programs, by the four faculties. The 3 rd study cycle (PhD), as well as post-doctoral studies, is organized
by an Interdisciplinary Doctoral School, with five specializations of full-time study. As a research university, the
MS and PhD activities are completed within 23 research centers and laboratories, as well as 3 Research
Institutes (The Life Sciences and other two under construction).
The structure of the university is designated to fit the activity for the undergraduate studies (BSc), the
graduate studies (MS) and the postgraduate studies (PhD and post-doc). The university’s infrastructure was
completely renewed in the last 4 years, offering a lot of opportunities and facilities for students and staff, and
will include in the near future, a new library, a new student residence, a students’ restaurant and other
developments that will make the university more attractive and adequate for a capacity of about 7.000
students.
USAMV Cluj-Napoca includes 4 faculties: Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Science and Biotechnology and
Veterinary Medicine. The university’s students (the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd study cycle) are enrolled into the faculties as
follows: 2,166 in Horticulture, 1,882 in Agriculture, 1,427 in Veterinary Medicine, and 745 in Animal Sciences
and Biotechnology. The current number of USAMV Cluj-Napoca registered students is of 6,220 students out of
which 4,869 are enrolled in the bachelor studies, 1,001 are master students and 350 are doctorate students.
Also, 30 young researchers are enrolled in postdoctoral studies (see: Appendix – Students). The number of
students during the last years was of about 6,400 students and we estimate that as a result of the new “A”
classification the university will keep this rate in the following five years.
As a result of a good university’s strategy and the adaptation to the market requirements, the number of
students increased during the past 20 years from 1,720 in 1990, to 3,850 in 2000 and 6,220 in 2011. We
emphasize especially the increase in the number of graduate students in the last five years, from 375 to more
than 1.000 today, and the facts that USAMV Cluj is nowadays the only Romanian agricultural university
qualified for PhD study.
Page 4 SELF-EVALUATION REPORT, March, 2012