The National Standardization Institute, together with representatives of the Romanian Center for European Policies in Moldova (CRPE Moldova), through the agency of the FHI 360 program “Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society”, worked out a course aid on standardization. CRPE project coordinator Ludmila Gamurari has told IPN that the book was compiled by two national experts and an expert from Romania and 25 representatives of the university community assessed it within a workshop, welcoming it as useful in teaching.

Five universities of Moldova – the State University of Moldova, the Technical University, the Academy of Economic Education, the State University of Comrat and the Balti University “Alecu Russo” – decided to use this course aid and the afferent curriculum as a guidebook for lecturers teaching standardization. Owing to this book, the students of the five universities will study the European standards to the detriment of the GOST standards. The course aid was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development.

Ludmila Gamurari said the students in Comrat were very receptive to the presentation that centered on the importance and advantages of the European standards for Moldova’s economy. New projects to promote the idea that Moldova needs modern and sustainable economy and that this is possible when the economic entities work to meet the European and international standards need to be presented to the students of the Balti university.

Aurica Butnari, professional formation manager at the National Standardization Institute, noted that education can make a fundamental contribution to the standardization activity. “The students are the future directors and professional experts. Either they become engineers or economists, they need to learn how the standards are worked out and what can be achieved by standards, from such general subjects as contribution to efficiency, public wellbeing, economic development, trade and sustainability to specific technical areas like transport, food products and information technology,” she stated.

Doctor Ion Panfil, lecturer at the Department of Metrology and Trade of the Academy of Economic Education, said this course aid is of a major importance for the students and teachers as it is one of the few modern publications on standardization in the Romanian language. The students already made copies of the guidebook, while the lecturers expect that the authors of the aid will provide the Academy’s library with several copies of this book.