In the 21st century, within the context of a society based on knowledge, the evolution of educational systems, from traditionalism to virtuality, inevitably and pragmatically calls to the specialists’attention the ensuring the quality of education. The University is the forum that constantly learns, to the community’s and its own advantage.The traditions of the Romanian education and the implementation of the European programs in instruction require that all the academic institutions reconsider and adjust their educational offer taking into consideration the new demands on the labour market of a society based on knowledge explaining the degree of quality standards implementation, the steps to follow, identifying of the best procedures, and the obtained support tools. It is undeniable that the contemporary social, political and economic context determines academic education to promptly and efficiently deal with changes that are very quick and difficult to manage. That’s why, in this new context, quality and its ensuring become key desiderata for the optimisation of the balance between projected requirements and final satisfaction.
In this sense, the new projects can contribute to the development of knowledge in this field, primarily by making available some instruments in the decision assistance and optimisation of the capabilities used to ensure quality in academic education. The originality may consist in the unitary, integrating approach of the qualitative and quantitative methods in the examination of the educational field. The novelty and complexity of the suggested topic are determined by the involvement in the research of partners belonging to different educational structures (state and private, civilian and military), and by the simulation of the elaborated patterns within the framework of the partner institutions. We also intend to create a database including the methods, tools and best practices used in the area that might be useful for further research.
The general objective of our research is to identify viable solutions, models of intervention and support instruments in order to assist the polices of ensuring quality in civilian and military academic education in the context of the society based on knowledge. The accomplishment of this desiderata is sustained by the achievement of the following specific objectives:
• Explanation of the interpretative possibilities of the main theories supporting the policies of ensuring quality in civilian and military academic education.
• Evaluation of the institutional impact of the polices on ensuring quality in academic education.
• Identification of the characteristics of the policies promoted in the military academic education.
• Identification of the capabilities involved in the quality management of the state academic education and solutions of optimization.
• Validation of the strategies ensuring quality in academic education by means of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Elaboration of integrated instruments to assist decision-making in the area of the academic quality.