An Information Systems Master Programme in Romania. Some Commonalities and Specificities

Abstract

This paper presents some preliminary results of a survey conducted in 2013 and 2015 for the graduates of Information Systems (IS) master programme at Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi. The survey main objectives were to gather information about graduates employability, to identify the required skills on the IT market, to find out the graduates opinion about the programme (including curricula, syllabi, internship, infrastructure, teaching staff), and program strengths and weaknesses and re-align curricula to the industry demand. A brief description of main IS career tracks was provided according to ACM/AIS curricula guidelines. Enrollment for both undergraduate and master IS programmes were compared to international trends. Some other assumptions which were checked relate to: the type of employers and customers of the IT projects the graduates work for, the moment of getting the first job, the structure IT vs. non-IT and managerial vs. non-managerial ( also overall and by genre) positions/jobs of the graduates. The IT functional (sub)areas of graduates positions were discussed in relation to the current state of Romanian IT market which is massively dependent on off shoring.Keywords: Information Systems Curricula, Graduates Survey, IS Employability, IS Programmes - Industry AlignmentIntroductionAs academic discipline and research topic, Information Systems (IS) has followed a convoluted trajectory. It's never ending identity crisis [1], [2] combined with a steep decline in enrolments in developed countries since the dot.com bust of 2001-2003, especially in US and UK programmes [3], [4], [5], rose questions about its future. Some MIS programs in the United States have completely shut down because of low enrolment [5], [6]. The main reason given in the literature for this decline is the offshoring of IT jobs [7], [6].Amidst funeral moods, Romanian (and other low-wage countries) IS programmes have thrived at both undergraduate and graduate levels [3]. Romania's increasing attractiveness for IT outsourcing (lower wages, technical skills, proficiency in foreign languages) created a big appetite for IT professionals and consequently IS enrolment has constantly risen. National and European statistical and academic studies revealed that from the beginning of the economic crisis (2008 in Romania) until the end of 2014, the number of jobs in the IT sector has doubled in Romania, and the demand continues to rise exponentially [8], [9], [10].One thing that is clear is that the globalization of software is here to stay, and its manifestation as IT services offshoring is a disruptive force that has a long-term effect on the domestic IT work force. This phenomenon brings many challenges to adapting the IT/IS education system. It has not only to prepare growing numbers of people to work in IT industry, but also to cope with different and changing occupations, each with its own skills and knowledge requirements. IT work can be thought of as consisting of a spectrum from the more routine (e.g. system maintenance and support, basic programming, system testing) through the more advanced (e.g. requirements management or system architecture development) to the advanced strategic (development of approaches that utilize IT to provide organisation with a competitive advantage), each of them asking for different mixture of technical, business, and softskills. The literature review doesn't provide a clear picture about IT jobs and skills that are being currently offshored or might be offshored in the future. Some authors state that all IT jobs/skills might be offshored arguing that IT skills tend to become new comodity [11], [12], while others try to prove that not all of its could be offshored and that the vulnerability to offshoring depends on some features of IT jobs/skills, such as the need for interpersonal interaction and face-to-face contact, the physical presence of workers in a fixed location and leading to a competitive advantage [13], [14]. …