CAHUL, MOLDOVA – Svetlana Stratan, JFDP Alumna (2004-2005, Economics), delivered a presentation on March 23, 2007 entitled, “The System of Higher Education in the United States,” to faculty members at Cahul State University’s School of Law and Public Administration. Stratan’s goals for the presentation were to acquaint the faculty members with the specifics of higher education systems in the USA, and to outline the necessity of implementing American-style university management in the organization and functioning of study centers for university faculty in Moldova.

During her presentation, Stratan addressed how U.S. universities manage the educational process and libraries with information technology, material resources, and web-based learning modules. Her presentation also covered the use of interactive teaching methods for more effective learning. As examples, she used data from large state universities - Florida State University, which hosted Stratan during her JFDP Fellowship, and Indiana University in Bloomington.

Stratan also introduced issues of plagiarism and student ethics. She provided excerpts from one U.S. university’s honor code, and described how students and researchers can avoid academic plagiarism by citing sources in research and writing papers. Stratan presented information about the software program, “Turn It In” , a tool that identifies papers containing unoriginal materials.

Participants of the seminar expressed the need for a continuation of similar events in the future, due to the lack of information about U.S. university management. “Such activities are just great!” said N. Lascar, a lecturer of the Law faculty at Cahul State University. “We are getting the chance to learn more things and experience our colleagues from other universities and countries."

Cahul State University