The National Alliance of Student Organisations in Romania (ANOSR) is the national union of students in Romania, a non-governmental and non-partisan entity which, since 1999, is officially representing the common interests of students in Romania, defending and promoting their rights and stimulating their participation in the educational, social, economic and cultural life.

ANOSR finds its roots in the social student movements of 1995, when the biggest student protests in Romania occured and student leaders felt the lack of a national and efficient coordination. Thus, on April 4th 1999, in Timișoara, at the International Student Week, 24 student organizations from all over the country founded ANOSR. ANOSr acquired legal status in March 2000, through a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, in the context of an obvious opposition from the government.

ANOSR’s activity is governed by certain values and principles, which guide us on the path of student representation. These principles are: democracy, liberty, legitimacy and representativeness, openness, transparency, non-partisanship, legality, competence, non-violence, unity and continuity.

ANOSR brings together students from 19 university centres across the country, from 30 universities, reaching a total of 112 member organisations, fighting together to keep the voice of the student movement in Romania alive. As a part of our mission, we are the national stakeholder in Romanian HE that represents PhD candidates.

On the national level, ANOSR is a member of the Alliance for a Clean Romania and member of the Romanian Youth Council, which in turn is a member of the European Youth Forum and the World Assembly of Youth.

ANOSR represents students from Romania in the Board and Council of the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS), in the Economic and Social Council of Romania (CES), the National Council for the Financing of Higher Education (CNFIS) and several other national consultative bodies. We are also a permanent guest at the Chamber of Deputies’ Education Committee.

The activity of ANOSR consists of influencing educational and youth policies in Romania, identifying and formulating the position of students through studies, consultations, analysis and positions. ANOSR is also a major stakeholder of the Romanian civil society, being actively involved in Romania’s daily civic issues. The most important projects of ANOSR are:

• Bologna Professor Gala – the only campaign in Romania that promotes student-centred learning by rewarding and encouraging “great teachers” who are true models of professionalism and dedication.
• Bologna in Universities – a series of conferences which aim to inform Romanian students about the most important tools that can be used in order to improve the quality of higher education, tools that the Bologna Process gives through its main lines of action.
• Summer University for Highschool Students – a project created in partnership with the National School Students Council, which supports high school students through student life simulation, designed to ensure responsible and informed choices about their academic future.

Among internal projects are included:

• Next HR, Next PR, Next FR, Next EDU, Next PM and Next Junior projects, which are focused on professional development in different areas of volunteering in organisations that are members of the federation.
• Regional trainings of student representation, followed by the National Training of Student Representation designed to prepare students to represent student interests in all decisional structures of universities.
• The Forum of Student Organisations in Romania (FOSR) is the most important event of the student movement în Romania, bringing yearly more than 500 student leaders with the purpose of developing the student movement through various trainings and establishing the operational direction of ANOSR.

Over time, the work carried out by ANOSR, through consistency and determination, has proved to be successful. Some of our accomplishments addressing the issues of PhD candidates life & study conditions, but not only, are:

• ANOSR’s GA decided to launch a call for a 6th committee, the PhD candidates’ Committee, with a special status;
• Starting with the academic year 2018-2019, Romanian universities are required to include academic ethics & integrity courses in their doctoral studies programmes;
• Better regulation of preventing and tackling plagiarism, after our analysis ”Copypaste universities: the phenomenon of plagiarism and academic imposture in higher education Romanian - the perspective of students”;
• After ANOSR’s advocacy, it is mandatory for universities to provide free similarity softwares for students;
• Increasing the amount of scholarships for PhD candidates – the only increase in the last 10 years;
• Introduction of a compulsory quality standard dedicated to the involvement of PhD candidates in research in the current National QA Agencies’ regulations, including free access to all university research facilities, and another standard by which students have the right to be supported through different means (tutoring, boarding, paid attendance to conferences etc);
• Ensuring PhD candidates participation in doctoral studies decision-making bodies, as voting members in the universities’ Councils of Doctoral Studies at university and doctoral school levels;
• Adoption of quality assurance standards for doctoral studies and the first external evaluation of the quality of doctoral studies in Romania in 2021, after ANOSR constant efforts;
• The enactment of the Student’s Charter în Romania (The code of students’ rights and obligations), the first legislative initiative owned 100% by students, the largest national student survey, the facilitation of the first internal mobility of students from Romania and the development of the first programmatic documents concerning the student movement and its role in the society.

ANOSR was also the first stakeholder in Romania to organize debates on Quality of Higher Education and the Bologna Process. Over the years, ANOSR has organised many protests against the measures taken by decision-makers in education. One such movement was the campaign “6 for education” in November 2013, when almost 10.000 students across the country protested in the streets, advocating the importance of funding the educational system and also the occupy movements in April 2015 when students have militated to obtain participation in the election of rectors at a rate of at least 25% of the total electorate.

Following the ANOSR’s demarches, the scholarship fund increased by 191,3% in 2017, free healthcare in university campus, free vocational counselling and psychological counselling were granted to students, students acquired participation in the Board of the universities, the boarding subsidies from the government rose by more than 50% in the last 5 years only.

Together, we represent the future!