Assessment Of The Regional And Human Geography Curricula At Babeș-Bolyai University

Abstract

The competitive education systems are the ones with the highest ability to seize, implement and optimise new study and research paradigms. The Geography School of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at Babeș-Bolyai University follows this streamlining of curriculum elements, which, in the case of Regional and Human Geography, allows a series of changes that this paper shows. The research is based on the observation that there are thematic overlaps, gaps or incoherencies when tackling the contents of courses correlated to Regional and Human Geography, at Bachelor and M.Sc. level in Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography. We analysed the education plans of all the specialisations for the Romanian study language, in order to determine the position of the Regional and Human Geography courses (percentage, name, study order, similarities). We also analysed the Regional and Human Geography course charts. Our evaluation was based on several criteria: theme similarity, thematic chronology, and theme relevance. In this faculty, the actual curricula and syllabi are very heterogeneous. To increase the quality of teaching and learning, both curricula and syllabi for Regional and Human Geography of each specialisation and level (Bachelor’s and M.Sc.) must be improved as the present evaluation showed that there is a good potential for this.