The Centre de Réussite Universitaire

The Centre de Réussite Universitaire, in short CRU ASE Bucharest, as a centre that embraces Francophone studies with the view of academic success, is part of a two-sided elaborate architecture. Its founder is The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (in short AUF), and its activities are carried out within the framework of ASE, via the Department for International Relations and the Francophone community of teachers and students from all the ASE faculties. The strong and effective partnership between these two institutions that began in the early 1990s has resulted in a centre whose history, outcomes and perspectives represent an illustration of the global changes in today’s world. Both institutions share a common ground goal, namely, to enhance students and teachers’ competences on a global market, as globalization concerns not only the economic and social areas, but also the educational institutions of all levels and especially higher education. As the environment of the University is changing, ASE itself is evolving and AUF is rethinking its strategy to support its members even more effectively. These changes we are all experiencing within the framework of mobilities that affect our various lives must be mastered and driven in the right direction by institutions and people prepared to face these challenges. CRU ASE is a relatively young international centre, as part of a project implemented by AUF in Central and Eastern Europe, but its foundation relies on two “solid bricks”. Set up on 24^th of March 2015, this centre inherited resources and experience from the activities of its predecessors, namely The French Lectorate, set up in 1992 and, The Campus Numérique Francophone Partenaire (in short CNFp), a digital campus set up in 2012, as part of the 39 CNF and 29 CNFp partners on every continent that were registered in 2014. If the French Lectorate was a traditional centre, mainly a library which hosted various activities, CNFp was conceived as a collective place set up in our university to respond to the needs for documentation and scientific research and training of interested Francophone public, through specific services and therefore to promote access to scientific and technical information and open and distance learning. The decision of transforming the CNFp from Central and Eastern Europe into a Centre de Réussite Universitaire was taken by the Scientific Council of AUF in its reunion of 9 December 2014 and documented by the AUF Strategy 2017 – 2021, Building the New French-speaking Academic area, adopted by the 17^th General Assembly meeting of Marrakech, May 10^th, 2017. CRU ASE acts in accordance with the Quality Chart of the Label “Centre de réussite universitaire” and its mission is to make available a place free to access various resources in French, innovative course development tools, didactic animation devices (reading, working online, networking), a self-training area by undertaking the following specific objectives:

• strengthen the attractiveness of Francophone education programmes;
• increase the number of Francophone students;
• improve students’ French language expression and communication skills;
• provide teachers and students with educational resources;
• promote the practice of innovative teaching methods, integrating face-to-face and self-learning sequences;
• strengthen academic and professional skills through trainings and trainers.

To fulfill its mission CRU ASE sets up a wide variety of events and activities: workshops for students and teachers, round-tables and conferences to which teachers, researchers, experts and professionals from the business world, personalities of French cultural life are invited, debates, training modules and international projects, contests and competitions; it also disseminates live international Francophone conferences on various topics via video conferencing system.

In addition, CRU ASE has a specialized library (more than 10,000 publications): reference works from all economic fields, linguistics, literature, dictionaries, journals, didactic files, audio and video resources. This fund was set up thanks to regular donations from the AUF, the French Embassy in Romania, Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) through its Délegation génerale Wallonie-Bruxelles in Bucharest and The International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF). CRU ASE, as an active part of a network of 53 CRUS established in 18 countries, is acting as a sounding box in identifying our university needs and disseminating Francophone news. At the crossroads of information, training, innovation and research, it contributes to the modernization of French-language teaching and testing as well as teaching business and economics in French; it increases the attractiveness of ASE Francophone offer and boost the visibility of local Francophone actions in order to promote student and scholar exchange programmes and strengthen ties with the business representatives from Francophone countries, by organizing various educational, cultural and business events with a general view of increasing quality and graduate employability in the context of a fall-off in the use of French in the academic environment and of a renewed interest in speaking and working in French.