Seven scientific-teaching laboratories outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment were inaugurated at the Technical University of Moldova (UTM). The equipment was purchased with over €5.6 million worth of grants offered to the University within the World Bank-funded Moldova Higher Education Project, IPN reports.

In the event to inaugurate the laboratories, Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun said that a project to the value of €25 million is being implemented and the UTM benefits from it as well. The investments are directed especially to laboratories. The project will be extended next year by another €30 million and a large part of the funds will be allocated to the Technical University. These resources will be used both for research and for the modernization of dormitories.

Present at the event, Ligia Deca, Minister of Education of Romania, said that in higher education the reasons for connecting to the European family are multiple, from the capacity to invest and learn from examples of good practice to the extraordinary mobility that many students and teachers benefit from. “We propose, in the future, a Romanian Erasmus program, through which teachers from the Republic of Moldova will come for short periods of time to Romanian universities, benefiting from allowances and accommodation, in order to strengthen the ties between our institutions. These mobility programs generate social relations, research projects with European funds and membership in European university alliances. I hope that, in the future, we will have European diplomas issued by universities of both countries,” stated the official.

From the resources allocated within the project, the UTM has also launched two new study programs, one of which refers to digital technologies in manufacturing and another one represents an innovative curriculum for the general field of study “Engineering and engineering activities”, which is oriented towards the labor market needs and which is meant to deal with weaknesses related to climate change.