Wellbeing in universities and Romanian quality assurance requirements; possible university strategy

The contemporary context of Romanian universities is neither a clear nor a stable one: a lot of pressure is put from different external entities, such as ministries, quality assurance institutions, rankings, employers, students and staff. Wellbeing is not a new concept, but it is not yet considered useful and manageable for higher education institutions struggling with scarcity of resources when priority always means research visibility. Scientific literature include more studies dedicated to wellbeing in schools, mainly kindergarten and primary school. This paper will prove that even Romanian universities can develop and implement a wellbeing services strategy. The research methodology is based on the literature review as well as a comparative study on the status of different high ranked universities, according to some wellbeing dimensions; it is also based on the results of a questionnaire-based research on students’ perception about the current institutional situation and the possibility of improving the existing state. The research questions are: What do we understand by wellbeing service? Do Romanian universities need a wellbeing strategy to improve the students’ services? What are the main elements to build such a strategy? The research is based on the following objectives: understanding the wellbeing concept in general and in Romanian university context, describing the gap between students’ services already provided and needed students’ services, identifying the main elements for building a wellbeing strategy. Main results of the paper refer to a draft of strategy model and practical solutions/measures to implement it.