PP-12 19 th INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “TRANSPORT 2009” “TRANSPORT AND TRAFFIC ENGINEERING” HIGHER EDUCATION - FROM RAILWAY TO LAND-USE INTERACTIONS TOGHETER WITH MULTIMODALITY FEATURES Serban Raicu, Mihaela Popa s_raicu@rectorat.pub.ro mihaela_popa@upb.ro University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest ROMÂNIA Abstract: After the 1990, the transport engineering higher education had to provide more then railway knowledge and skills to its graduates. These railway- based programs were, in communism era, much fit and appropriate to serve the general centralised economy development of the communism countries. We present in this paper that the valuable core of competences related to the railway engineering was preserved in new programs of the transport and traffic higher education in Romania, adapting the rail knowledge and adding new components in order to respond to the actual needs of the general economic development. Nowadays, all the Faculties/Universities of Transport from the East and Central European countries, or former communist countries, changed or are changing more or less their structure, curricula and syllabuses, adapting them to the new responsibilities of the transport and traffic engineer. Key words: transport engineering higher education; railway transport; multimodality features, transport and land-use interactions. INTRODUCTION The Bologna Process aimed to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010, in which students can choose from a wide and transparent range of high quality courses and benefit from smooth recognition procedures. The Bologna Declaration of June 1999 has put in motion a series of reforms needed to make European Higher Education more compatible and comparable, more competitive and more attractive for Europeans and for students and scholars from other continents. At the London meeting of 17/18 May 2007 Ministers adopted a strategy on how to reach out to other continents countries, especially USA and Japan. All across Europe, countries and universities are engaged in a process of modernisation. From an EU perspective, these reforms are part of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, which also encompasses reinforced cooperation in vocational education and training (Copenhagen Process). Most of the West, but also some of Central European countries adopted for their technical first cycle of higher education only three years duration, even if, as e.g. Dresden technical universities, they had five years duration in past years. The Bologna Process for Romania has launched a significant discussion in academia, and to a lesser extent for the larger public. The debate was finished when the Parliament adopted the specific Law regarding the reorganization of higher education, and it was reflected in the public acknowledgement of few items such: ♦undergraduate degrees will last four years instead of five, only for technical programs – 240 ECTS – as first cycle, Mechanics ISSN 1312-3823 Transport issue 3, 2009 Communications Introductory article № 2 Academic journal http://www.mtc-aj.com