ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT AND GRADUATES' INTEGRATION INTO THE LABOUR MARKET

A fundamental contribution of the Bologna Reform to European higher education is the focus on finalities of the educational process. The main aim of higher education is giving knowledge and forming professional competencies to the students for their integration into the labour market. In Romania, the link of higher education and scientific research with the labour market encounters important difficulties: the persistence of the old educational models, the isolation of the educational process in mainly theoretical approaches, far from reality, inefficient nowadays, the resistance to the real change, the superficial implementation of the Bologna reform, the precarious status of practice in curricula, the weak and unconvincing cooperation between universities and employers, the employers' lack of confidence in the Bologna graduates. These difficulties generate problems in the graduates' integration into the labour market, a random process today, under the authority of chance, not of specialization. In the orientation of the academic process towards the labour market, in the growth of the graduates' employability, an efficient and competitive academic management plays a crucial role. By the curricular reform, by collaboration programmes and partnerships with employers, the link of academic education and scientific research with the labour market can become an institutional and systemic reality in the very spirit of the Bologna Process.