Anna Soós: Babeş-Bolyai University – an effective example of higher education and business co-operation

DR. ANNA SOÓSVICE-RECTOR

Babeş-Bolyai University – an effective example of higher education and

business co-operation

Babeș-Bolyai University

the bigest university of Romania – 42000 students

uninterrupted functioning since 1872

3 lines of study: Romanian, Hungarian and German

250 bachelor programs260 master programs31 doctoral domains

Cluj-Napoca – an emerging Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe

second largest city of Romaniatraditionally multicultural and multiethnic5 state universities11000 people employed in the IT sectorinvestors like Bosch, Siemens, Emerson,

Bombardier, De’Longhi, Genpact, Steelcase, NTT Data, Office Depot

Cluj Innovation City: a plan for future collaboration ecosystem between different research institutions, local authorities and private companies (fields of IT, health, bio-economy and renewable energies)

Babeș-Bolyai University – research reputation

Best Global Universities Ranking 2015 750 universities from 57 countries it ranks the world’s top universities based on research indicators

global research reputation regional research reputation publications books conferences normalized citation impact total citations number of publications that are among the 10 percent most cited percentage of total publications that are among the 10 percent most cited international collaboration number of Ph.D.s awarded number of Ph.D.s awarded per academic staff member

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/articles/methodology

Universities from Romania and Hungary in the ranking

Eötvös Loránd University – 465Babeş-Bolyai University – 560University of Debrecen – 585 University of Bucharest – 588Technical University of Bucharest –

706 Budapest University of Technology

and Economics – 722Semmelweis University – 736University of Szeged – 745http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/search?country=hungary&country=romania&name=

Babeș-Bolyai University – research reputation

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015 – 2016 800 universities from 70 countries it ranks the world’s top universities based on 13 performance indicators grouped into 5 areas

teaching reputation survey staff-to-student racio doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio doctorates awarded -to-academic staff ratio institutional income

research reputation survey research income research productivity

citations (research influence) international outlook

international-to-domestic student ratio international-to-domestic staff ratio international collaboration

industry income

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ranking-methodology-2016

Universities from Romania and Hungary in the ranking

501 – 600 rangeo Babeş-Bolyai Universityo Semmelweis University

601 – 800 rangeo Alexandru Ioan Cuza Univeresityo University of Bucharesto Budapest University of Technology and

Economicso University of Debreceno Eötvös Lóránd Universityo University of Pécso University of Szegedo West University of Timişoara

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016

The context – percentage of GDP invested in research and development

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Outstanding research results at UBB

N.T. Markov, M. Ercsey-Ravasz, D.C. Van Essen, K. Knoblauch, Z. Toroczkai, H. Kennedy, Cortical High-density Counter-stream Architectures, Science, 342, 2013

Y. Ren, M. Ercsey-Ravasz, P. Wang, M.C. Gonzalez, Z. Toroczkai, Predicting commuter flows in spatial networks using a radiation model based on temporal ranges, Nature Communications, 5, 2014.

Outstanding research results at UBB

S. Jerez, I. Tobin, R. Vautard, J. P. Montávez, J. M. López-Romero, F. Thais, B. Bartok, O. B. Christensen, A. Colette, M. Déqué, G. Nikulin, S. Kotlarski, E. van Meijgaard, C. Teichmann, M. Wild, The impact of climate change on photovoltaic power generation in Europe, Nature Communications, 6, 2015.

How business-world contributed to these results

quality of education

and research at

the university

highly trained

professionals for the

firms

Case study 1 – Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

6.400 students

20 BSc specializations

29 MSc specializations

6 PhD specializations

Romanian, Hungarian, German, English and French



10% of the courses and seminars were delivered by a company

4% out of compulsory classespresentations, workshops and

company visitSMEs, multinational and large

companiestopics: main business functions

(marketing, management, finances and accounting)

B1. Into the courses B2. Extracurricularpresentations (29%),

company visits (27%), workshops (22%)

multinational companies (35%), non-profit organizations (18%), SMEs (15%), governmental institutions (13%), large companies (8%)

bottom-up initiatives, coming from individual teachers

Case study 2 – Branding college

students, teachers and professionals work togetherboth theory and practical skillsreal-life issues: orders from firms, organizations

students gain experience needed for job enrolmentfirms, organizations get their brands developed by young

professionals with the mentoring of experienced mentors

Case study 2 – Branding college – from the portfolio

Case study 3 – Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics

37 partners


most complex co-operation education

summer practice for students (2 weeks) projects for diploma-work (coordonator at the university, mentor at the firm) projects for courses curricula development (new courses held by professionals from the firms – ex.

Bitdefender, Accenture) courses at the firm for BBU students (Bitdefender, Codespring) contests for students (Codespring)

research PhD research themes – Siemens, Bosch PhD scholarships sponsorship for conferences


the effect of the co-operation – students

experience the competitive milieu, have to participate at job interviews;

practice both soft skills (responsibility, humor, empathy, teamwork, leadership, communication, social skills) and hard skills (professional skills);

networking, getting in contact with future employers;


the effect of the co-operation – Faculty adjustment of the training programs (new master program: Software engineering

in English; new courses: Java, Python) receiving feedback on the quality of students and alumni; partner companies support the participation of students at competitions and

projects; companies organize tutorials for students; companies organize workshops at international scientific conferences organized

by the Faculty; companies stimulate research by identifying themes of special interest; companies facilitate student research by offering awards at different contests or

for excellent BA theses and MA dissertations; companies can offer topics for BA theses and MA dissertations.

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