Intercultural Dialogue and KM in Romanian Higher Education. Case Studies at the Bucharest University of Economics and at the "Politehnica" University of Bucharest, the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages

The paper debates topics such as intercultural competences and intercultural dialogue in the context of applying Knowledge Management (KM) in academia. The main research part whose results are being disseminated through this paper is part of a national research project, "Equality of chances and intercultural dialogue". The project was granted by competition and benefits from the expertise of a dynamic team of University Professors and lecturers as well as enthusiastic PhD students. The paper present some of the results of our research based on a unique questionnaire shared by students (both Romanian and foreign) studying Economics in foreign languages (at the Faculty of Business Administration taught in foreign languages, English section, the Bucharest University of Economics) and Engineering (at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages, English section, "Politehnica" University, Bucharest). Both of these faculties have a common characteristic: their students learn all the subjects in foreign languages. We have given a special attention to universities that teach in foreign languages because they are hosting "culturally different" students bringing together people from different nationalities, different cultural backgrounds, with different opinions, characters and personalities. It is necessary to underline the diversity of the subjects involved in our study. In the end we have attempted an overall conclusion drawn from the answers to a unique questionnaire shared by both students in economics and engineering. We consider that the two higher education institutions need to promote a new vision on KM applied in a framework where plurality of cultures cooperates in dialogue and in shared knowledge, skills and responsibility.