ID/IFR Department

About Distance Learning (DL) and Infrequent Frequency Learning (IFR)

Within the "Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University the establishment and organization of the form of education with Reduced Frequency (IFR) was established by the University Senate Decision no. 617 of 24.06.2002. in accordance with the provisions of the University Charter and the legislation in force:

• H.G. no. 1011/2001 on the organization and functioning of Distance Learning and Low Frequency Learning in higher education institutions;
• Law on Higher Education no. 199/2023
• OM no. 6251/11.XII.2012 for the approval of the Framework Regulation on the organization, conduct and standardization of teaching activities in distance and low frequency forms of higher education.

Distance Learning (DL) and Short-Frequency Learning (LDL) are alternative forms of education which provide the possibility of initial training, further training or vocational conversion for a wide range of citizens in different fields. These forms of education focus more on how the student learns and less on where they study.

In particular, part-time education offers an opportunity to certain socio-professional categories but, at the same time, the conditions for this form of education must be ensured, leading to the guarantee of a high quality level of the educational process. Thus, it represents a form of organization of teaching processes characterized by teaching-learning-assessment activities devoted to applied training, scheduled in a compact or periodical way, which involves both the direct meeting of students/learners with the teaching staff in the university environment and the use of teaching/training means specific to distance learning.

Face-to-face teaching activities involve:

• pre-scheduled and timetabled activities that can take place on campus or synchronously online, e.g. via video conferencing systems;
• making it compulsory for students to participate in these activities.

Part-time tuition offers students the opportunity to manage their learning while respecting the timetable established by the university. Assisted learning activities are usually scheduled on weekends. Part-time education shares characteristics with both full-time and distance learning. Thus, courses are studied individually and students have access to study materials adapted to individual study, the self-learning process. Part-time education is characterized by teaching activities devoted mainly to applied training, scheduled on a compact or regular basis, which involves both direct contact between students and teachers in the university environment and the use of specific distance learning training resources.

The preparation process of IFR students is the sum of activities carried out in face-to-face classes, i.e. seminars, laboratories, projects.

At the same time, distance learning (DL) is a form of organization of learning processes that gives students/learners the possibility to personally choose where and when they learn. Distance learning, also referred to as distance education, elearning or online learning, is characterized by the physical separation of teachers and students in the learning process and the use of diversified technologies to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication. A distance learning study program may be offered entirely at a distance or it may be a combination of face-to-face and distance learning activities carried out in the higher education institution (Blended Learning). Courses organized at a distance may use a variety of instructional and communication methods, technologies and resources, such as: video/audio conferencing, internet-mediated web techniques, digital or printed study materials.

Distance learning activities involve:

• the existence of study materials adapted to individual study, produced in ID technology;
• online, asynchronous or synchronous;
• the existence at institutional level of the means and IT platforms to ensure teaching-learning-assessment and communication specific to ID;
• ensuring access to the IT platforms and their resources for students and all staff involved in the teaching process;
• the existence of appropriate tools for monitoring and recording the teaching, learning and assessment activities carried out in this system.

By its nature, distance learning is a flexible form of education, offering students/learners the possibility to choose where and when they learn. Distance learning also offers students the possibility to study individually as well as to carry out group learning activities. Distance learning involves the organization of the activities of the educational process (teaching-learning and assessment), where students/learners are physically separated in space and time from the educational institution, with which they communicate synchronously or asynchronously by specific means. Distance learning involves the use of information and communication technologies adapted to self-learning and self-assessment activities, complemented by specific tutoring activities. Distance learning involves the use of a wide range of resources and technologies, materials adapted to individual study in printed or digital form available on computer platforms or other storage media. These are adapted to the diversity of content in the educational process.

University, through the IFR form, allows access to undergraduate, postgraduate and professional conversion studies to any person who wishes to upgrade or obtain a new professional qualification in line with the requirements of the labor market, without having to interrupt his/her socio-professional activity.

"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University, meets the conditions imposed by the legislation in force and ARACIS standards on how to organize and administer the undergraduate and master degree programs of the Red Frequency teaching form. Currently, following the periodical evaluations carried out by ARACIS, all bachelor and master IFR degree programs are accredited.

Legal framework for the organization and functioning of the IFR Department

The initiation, development and management of the ID/IFR study programs are ensured by the ID/IFR Department of the University, subordinated to the University Senate, together with the faculties' management. The ID/IFR Department was organized and operates on the basis of its own Organization and Functioning Regulations approved by the University Senate, which comply with the legislation in force and are published on the university website.

The organization, development and management of the study programmes in the Area of International Research and Innovation (IFR) is carried out within the faculties organizing bachelor and master degree programmes, under the coordination of the Department for Distance and Infrequent Learning (ID/IFR).

According to the Organizational Chart of the ID/IFR Department of UCDC in its entire activity, it collaborates with the faculties, respectively IFR study programs and other departments within the institution.

Mission and Objectives

The mission of the ID/IFR Department, as defined in the DID/IFR Quality Manual, is "to provide and develop the resources and tools necessary to carry out education and scientific research processes at quality standards, specific to the part-time undergraduate/ID and part-time master's degree programs, necessary to train specialists with a complex theoretical and applied training, able to integrate quickly and effectively into the labor market in the field of study".

The assumption of a mission and a set of objectives has as its lasting foundation the appropriation of values that DID/IFR wishes to honor and promote permanently:

1. professional competence - continuous improvement and performance orientation in education;
2. Moral integrity - maintaining a commitment to honesty, honesty and honor, in accordance with the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics;
3. vocation - the members of our academic community are characterized by a willingness to give, not just to provide knowledge, contributing to IFR students' career choices in the light of and through the clarification of a vocation;
4. culture and spirit of the university community - increasing the fidelity of all actors in the IFR/ID educational process (teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff, students) to the reference values that define U.C.D.C.C;
5. Respect (for work and values, for people and the community);
6. creativity, dynamism and personality;
7. harmonizing individual and collective interests;
8. constructive approach and critical thinking - maintaining an open dialog with the partners involved in the teaching process;
9. social responsibility - inclusion of people with special needs, gender equality, sustainable development, volunteering and employability of students and graduates.

Overall strategic objectives of the ID/IFR Department

In order to achieve the vision and in the spirit of its mission, the ID/IFR Department aims for the period 2021-2025 to cover the enrolment figures set by ARACIS for each study program in a proportion that ensures the educational process in optimal conditions, having at the center of its concerns on the one hand, the student and, on the other hand, quality assurance in the teaching process. Thus, the general strategic objectives that contribute to the realization of the mission of the ID/IFR Department are presented below:

1. Collaboration with the departments of the institution involved in the development of integrated, modern university curricula, permanently adapted to the demands of the labor market, in the context of the knowledge-based society;
2. Organization of the part-time/ID educational process as a system centered on learning outcomes, providing training in the fields of economics, law, public administration and the formation of ethical behavior and, equally, as a system open to international cooperation with structural-organizational entities in the European area;
3. Implement the Quality Management System and promote a quality culture;
4. Improving the preparation of human resources involved in IFR/ID study programs;
5. Providing an appropriate environment for individual study - debate-assessment and evaluation;
6. Promoting the provision of part-time/ID education services.

Management and administration

The own staff included in the posts in the organization chart corresponds in terms of professional qualifications to the conditions required for filling those posts.

The ID/IFR Department has its own Rules of Functioning approved by the University Senate, which complies with the legal regulations in force and which is published on the university website.

The management of the Department for Distance and Low-Frequency Learning is ensured by the Council of the Department for Distance and Low-Frequency Learning, with the following composition, in the academic year 2023-2024:

The Chair of the ID/IFR Department has managerial responsibilities over the IFR process within the IFR study programs. Therefore he/she works in close cooperation with the IFR responsible at faculty level and his/her team.

Thus, in order to ensure the smooth running of low frequency learning, UCDC provides an adequately sized administrative staff, which operates on two levels:

1. within the ID/IFR Department: for the conceptual-strategic organization of the administrative support; for the management of IFR technology programs; student relations; program management; program management; providing specific infrastructure and logistics, etc.;
2. in the secretariats of the faculties to which the IFR study programs belong, for the management of study documents, school records, student relations, etc.

At the level of the faculties supporting bachelor and master undergraduate studies through the Reduced Frequency Teaching within the Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, the managerial team is presented in the following table:

The heads of faculties organizing university study programs in IFR system in the academic year 2023-2024

No. crt.	Faculty and locality	Responsible
1	Legal and Administrative Sciences - Bucharest	Prof. univ. dr. Nicoleta Heghes
2	Faculty of Business Bucharest	Lect. univ. dr. Robert Chira
3	International Business Administration	Lect. univ. dr. Anda Onetiu
4	Finance-Banking	Lect. univ. dr. Radu Sorin
5	Economic Sciences - Cluj-Napoca	Prof. Dr. Radu Dorin Lenghel
6	Law - Cluj-Napoca	Prof. Dr. Călin Costin

The responsibilities of the managerial and administrative team of the undergraduate study program in IFR system are:

• organize a working group of trained IFR staff;
• ensure compliance with all academic requirements imposed by the regulations in force on study programs, curricula, analytical programs and study guides for the specializations they lead;
• ensure the satisfaction of the requirements imposed by the rules of accreditation of specializations by using teachers with appropriate academic degrees and qualifications;
organize a production centre for IFR materials;
• ensure the conditions for the fulfillment of the legality regarding the professional quality of the materials and the respect of intellectual property rights;
• ensure computerized record of distribution materials;
• produces and capitalizes courses in IFR technology and/or educational multimedia materials;
• coordinates the development of courses in ID technology;
• coordinates its own IFR programs;
• organizes IFR support centres for various IFR programmes;
• propose admission conditions and organize the admission of students to IFR in accordance with the legislation in force;
• draw up education plans and propose them for validation, in compliance with the legislation in force.

The students' records, the management of study documents (catalogues, centralizers, registers, enrolment registers, enrolment sheets, diplomas, diploma supplements, etc.) and the school situation are carried out at the level of the secretariats of the faculties organizing the undergraduate degree programs - IFR.

List of secretariats of faculties organizing IFR study programs in the academic year 2023-2024

IFR undergraduate degree programs

Academic year 2023/2024

ID/IFR Department

Address: 176 Splaiul Unirii,
Sector 4, București,
Intrarea D1, etaj 1, sala 49
Email: depifr@ucdc.roEmail: depifr@ucdc.ro

Contact emails IFR study programs

Drept: dreptfr@ucdc.ro
Public administration: admpubfr@ucdc.ro
Tourism and Commercial Management Bucharest: mtcfr@ucdc.ro
Finance, Banking and Accounting: fbcfr@ucdc.ro
International Economic Relations: reifr@ucdc.ro
Law Cluj Napoca: dreptclujfr@ucdc.ro
Economic Sciences Cluj Napoca: econclujfr@ucdc.ro
Faculty of Marketing: marketingfr@ucdc.ro