Meeting with Andreea Mogoş, the Vice Dean of Faculty of Politics, Administrative and Communication S

After the interview in the studio we had a meeting with Andreea Mogoş, the vice dean of the Faculty of Politics, Administrative and Communication Sciences. She is a professor at the Department of Journalism and is also in charge with the international students and international programs like Erasmus. She began with presenting us the university and the faculty.

Babeş Bolyai University is the biggest university in Transylvania and Romania. There are 25 faculties and the PSAC is the biggest one compared to others. During the communist era, departments like political science and journalism were inexistent. There were only two schools but they were just for the propaganda. That's why it's the youngest faculty, established in 1995 even though the university is much older. According to last ranking made by the Ministry of Education, their programs were on the top of the rankings in their respective domains. There are 5 departments: Journalism; Political Science; Public Administration; Communication, Public Relations, Advertising and Public Health. For all the levels (Bachelor, Master, PhD) there are programs in Romanian, Hungarian, English and German. The reason why Hungarian and German programs exists lies in the multicultural structure of Transylvania. They share the same history in a way. These languages are considered to be mother languages in the university. So you can find a program in these languages at any level. Nowadays there are few Germans left because of the communist period but some of the are returning. This faculty is very international because the international incoming students at the faculty make up a quarter of the total number. The European students have the same rights as Romanian students and they are just using the same facilities. Beside the Erasmus program, they have also agreements with many non-European universities. They also encourage the students to follow their passions and for this they have clubs like photography, cinema, debates and also they have charity programs with which they collect money and clothes for the ones in need. They have research centers about democracy studies, health policy, media systems.

We asked about the difference between private and public universities upon hearing there was a tuition fee for Babeş-Bolyai. She explained that If you have good grades you can go to a public university which they made their own examination and students should write a motivation letter. If you don't have good grades, then you have to pay for the school. Also the Non-EU students have to pay. The tuition fees are approximately 4.000 euros for a year. Before, for the entrance to the university, there was a national examination which was done with four exams: English, Romanian literature, Romanian, grammar and recent history. She applied to journalism when this system was on and says that the current system is better than before.

We wondered about how the accession to the EU influenced the academic life. Before being a member of the EU, they didn't have many international students and programs because they didn't have many connections. Without the necessity of visa, researches and cooperation can be made more easily. The visa process was a difficulty for mobility. Even if you had all the documents, it wasn't sure that you'll get the visa. In addition, not only did it influence the opportunities to travel to Europe but also it improved the students’ mentality and the development in his/her field. She thinks nowadays student are very lucky because in her time they didn't have these facilities. The university is connected to many international schools. The things they can do right now; it might have been impossible ten years ago.

She mentioned that she went to Paris for education. We asked her if she wanted to go back or stay. She said she never thought about staying there. After the communist regime, people were full of hope and her idea was to build something in Romania, especially in this field. Being a journalist is not easy in a country that you don't use your own language. No matter how good you speak the foreign language, it isn't the same as the mother language. This was the one of the reasons of her return to Romania. The job has a serious connection with the language. She never intended to do anything else than communication or teaching in the university. Her generation was excited to see the change but it wasn't like the way they hoped because the change doesn't happen overnight and the history is actually made up of a long process. She said that in Romania people said that their parents were "sacrifice generation" because they were born right after the Second World War, it was very difficult for them. And then the next generation, hers, said that they were the "sacrifice generation" because they've seen the transition and lived its results. Now, the new generation also describe themselves like that because they have to find jobs, to go abroad to make their living. Each generation has its own problems. According to her we have to see the bright side, what we can do, how we can do, and help the society to develop. Somebody has to do something. People has to invest a lot for the change.

When we saw that the name of the faculty, we wondered why Political Sciences and Communication Sciences are together because we've never seen them together. In Turkey, usually Political Sciences is within the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences and there is a Faculty of Communication and its departments. She said that when the journalism, the specialization, was established, it was within the Faculty of History and Philosophy. So they have started within the Faculty of History and also Political Sciences started within this faculty. They eventually thought that they had something in common and they established their new faculty together.