Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (UBB) has signed a working agreement with the National Administration of Penitentiaries (ANP) on training prison staff and carrying out joint research projects, as well as offering student internships.
Under the agreement, UBB will help organize training and specialization courses in areas such as psychology, social work, sociology, criminal law related to prison sentences, and institutional management.
The partnership also allows the two institutions to apply jointly for European funding.
The partners will host academic events, and contribute to public policies focused on helping former inmates reintegrate into society. As part of this collaboration, prison professionals and UBB student (including master’s and PhD candidates) will be able to work inside prisons.
The agreement is valid for two years and can be extended. UBB added that the partnership reflects its broader goal of contributing to society through education, research, and community involvement, in cooperation with public institutions.
University partnerships with public institutions are an essential part of academic life: universities routinely collaborate with government agencies. This is a well-established practice, and nothing unusual.
What makes this partnership stand out is not its structure but its focus. Direct, long-term collaboration with a national penitentiary administration is less common, because prisons are highly regulated environments that require special access and oversight. While such partnerships do exist internationally, they are more specialized than typical university-state agreements.
Another interesting aspect is that of the collaboration’s breadth. By spanning multiple disciplines and explicitly framing the penitentiary system as a potential career path for graduates, the partnership goes beyond routine internship arrangements. It’s ambitious — let’s see it play out in practice.
