The opening of the new academic year of 2024-2025 at the University of Bucharest, an occasion to reaffirm the collaboration with the Bucharest City Hall

Bucharest General Mayor, Nicușor Dan, present at the opening festivity of the Faculty of Business and Administration

Monday, September 30^th 2024, the General Mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, was present at the opening festivity of the new academic year of 2024-2025 organized by the Faculty of Business and Administration of the University of Bucharest (UB), next to professor Marian Preda, PhD, the Rector of the University of Bucharest.

Preparing specialists in public administration, management, marketing and international affairs, in the public sector, the private one and in non-governmental organizations, the Faculty of Business and Administration manages, each by year, to offer the local public administration experts capable of efficiently managing resources, to implement public policies and to develop sustainable projects.

Through its profile, the Faculty of Business and Administration represents a bridge between the University of Bucharest and the local public administration, developing, along the years, strong collaboration relationships with the Bucharest City Hall.

In this context, professor Marian Preda, PhD, Rector of the University of Bucharest, saluted the collaboration between the University of Bucharest and Bucharest City Hall and commenced his speech with a short presentation of the University of Bucharest and the importance that the institution had, along its 160 years of existence, for the entire Romanian society.

Rector Marian Preda noted that the University of Bucharest is an essential institution not just for the Romanian state throughout the course of its history, but also for Bucharest, for having offered and still offering workforce for the capital’s economy. This is why it is extremely important that we, those in the academic setting, the Bucharest City Hall and sectorial city halls, as well as the other actors who support Bucharest, continue the collaboration we have started in positioning Bucharest among the main cities in Europe.

On the same note, as professor Marian Preda underlined, Bucharest managed to integrate in the European economic landscape, reaching levels of prosperity comparable to those of other capital in Central and West Europe. This is highlighted by the most recent data from Eurostat, which position the Bucharest-Ilfov area on the 8^th place in the top 242 NUTS 2 regions of the European Union, well above other notable European capitals, such as Vienna, currently ranked 24^th, and Berlin, situated on place 144. Thus, the average salary in Bucharest is 25% higher than the national average.

The performance that professor Marian Preda speaks of is also sustained by the University of Bucharest which, year by year, prepares the most well-paid employees in Romania: 17.692 lei is the average income obtained by the graduates of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Bucharest. Thus, UB is the first comprehensive higher education institution in Romania, considering the employment results of its graduates and their income.

 The faculty of Business and Administration is a symbolic faculty for the evolution, present and future of the University of Bucharest, because it is here that we find relevant study programs for what is happening in society: public administration, business administration or marketing: all these programs need you the graduates of the Faculty of Business and Administration, to bring value and offer a new perspective on the significance of the word performance, concluded professor Marian Preda.

Bucharest General Mayor, Nicușor Dan, graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Bucharest, congratulated the students who chose UB to continue their studies: I will say to the students that we need professionals who can bring performance to local and central public administration, because there are many more things to do to develop Romania, and we must build a society and administration useful for its citizens. It is an honor to be a part of this higher education institution, the most suitable place to start a successful career.

Several other teaching staff members attended the festivity of behalf of the University of Bucharest, including associate professor Ana-Maria Vlăsceanu, UB vice-rector for Legislation, conformity, work relations and public acquisitions, and professor Magdalena Iordache-Platis, UB vice-rector for Students, quality management, sustainability and social responsibility. The Faculty of Business and Administration was represented at the event by associate professor Marius Jula, PhD, the faculty’s dean, by professor Paul Marinescu, PhD, teaching staff at the same faculty, and Silvia-Andreea Baidac, president of the Association of students of the Faculty of Business and Administration.

I welcome you to the opening of the new university year at the Faculty of Business and Administration. It is an honor for us to have you here today and experience, together, the enthusiasm of a new beginning. This beginning, is, in fact, a continuation of a tradition started by the University of Bucharest 160 years ago, when Ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza signed the decree that founded our institution. I want to assure you that the Faculty of Business and Administration, through its more than 200 teaching staff and researchers, will represent, for each one of you, the starting point for a prosperous future, was the message conveyed by associate professor Marius Jula, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Business and Administration, to the students who made Amphitheatre R3 Nicolae Teclu of the Faculty of Chemistry seem small.

In the closing moments of the festivity, associate professor Marius Jula invited the students to meet their future professors and discover the classes and amphitheaters where their seminaries, workshops and courses will take place during the new academic year of 2024-2025.