Higher education institutions have always focused on improving quality assurance; from regular student surveys, it can be noted that they repeatedly request more practical activities as part of their courses. The gap between some projects’ implementation and current requirements for teaching and learning highlighted the need for a proper balance between curricular and extracurricular activities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of integrating an energy saving awareness marketing campaign that was run on campus into the syllabus of a marketing class as an efficient way of changing behaviors from sporadic participation to active engagement. The methodology is based on a conceptual description of an awareness campaign within a Horizon 2020 project and literature review, as well as on a focus group and a quantitative analysis based on a questionnaire addressed to students in one of the universities involved as a project beneficiary. The main findings show that students are more likely to change their energy saving behaviors when they actively participate in designated activities, especially when these are incorporated into teaching and learning. Conclusions indicate that formal rules well explained as part of the students’ requirements are the key to a change in energy saving behavior.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, online sales have increased in recent years for many products. Responsible consumption has also been considered by households and individuals, and interest in sustainable products has positively evolved. Although sustainable products have more and more been considered by consumers and producers as appropriate alternatives, the results are still underwhelming. This study aims to demonstrate the relationship between the online sales of sustainable products and the online marketing costs expressed by the cost-per-click in Romania in the last three years. This quantitative research is a conclusive and descriptive study based on secondary data sets collected from the evidence registered in an online agency, which, in turn, was based on a sample of companies and products in three industries considered highly open to sustainable approaches: electronics; home and garden; clothing and footwear. The results show different relationships between the online marketing cost and the sales of sustainable products in the above-mentioned industries. In addition, online consumer purchasing intention is a mediator for the relationship between marketing cost and online sales in one industry only, namely electronics. The study reveals the development of the online transactions of sustainable products, considering the connection between marketing costs and subsequent sales.

Students are often described as an under-reported and under-supported group of the population falling into energy poverty. Although the main drivers of energy poverty are well documented, up to this date little attention is given to housing tenure as a cause of energy poverty. This study aims to support the understanding of the motivations and barriers faced by property owners that rent accommodation to students for making energy efficiency improvements to their rented properties. With this understanding recommendations for alleviating energy poverty experienced by students living in the private rented sector can be formulated. The research conducted is based on qualitative methods; focus group discussions and interviews. Data were collected from almost 30 student landlords in seven EU countries between October 2017 and January 2018. Findings show that grants and financial incentives are key for the questioned proprietors to move to energy efficiency improvements of their property but bureaucracy burdens are a major barrier for moving forward with them. In addition, the need for stronger information campaigns on energy efficiency issues is revealed. Eventually, a number of financial, consumer protection, energy efficiency and informational measures for alleviating energy poverty experienced by students living in private rented accommodation are proposed.

Student services represent one of the most important areas that has developed in every higher education institution and continues to evolve based on the students’ feedback and contextual issues. All quality assurance systems for higher education include standards to evaluate institutional capacity to provide these services. Well-being is one type of student service that universities have high interest in developing. In the current pandemic situation, significant changes towards digitalization have occurred, but at the same time, new types of student services based on counselling proved to be the most needed. Academic leadership is facing a lot of pressure to increase research visibility and deal with limited resources; therefore, a decision on well-being development is not easy. The purpose of this study is to reveal the well-being concept and practice as applied in different universities in Romania in order to build a possible institutional strategy (an introductory model). Apart from a literature review, conceptual clarifications, and best practices, the methodology includes a gap analysis and a survey based on a questionnaire to determine the students’ perceptions on the development of well-being services. The findings show the highest interest of respondents in contributing to the well-being service development. The conclusions indicate concrete steps for the establishment of a well-being strategy.

The analyses of managers’ and assistant managers’ interaction plans in designing, organizing, implementing and assessing specific management processes / assessing the professional status of the assistant manager in organizations with an input from the public or private field / making the organizational change processes more effective through involvement. The concluding remarks drawn in this study may have some implications on the following groups: researcher administrator of the university, practitioners, becoming objective through a set of indicators for assessing and surveying the assistant manager's specific activity in the direct professional relationship. The same set of indicators may have an important role in the development of the university curricula in this field.

Higher education institutions face many challenges in order to increase their visibility, recognition and position in the field based or general higher education market. National or international rankings put a lot of pressure on academic leadership to fulfill the criteria of their methodologies. Learning experience is becoming a more and more important dimension of the motivation to study. In the contemporary context of networking diversity, the process of generating learning experience is becoming part of the institutional efforts related to which creating an internal environment is connected to the learning experience generating. The literature review proves a higher interest on student engagement, on students’ and graduates’ involvement in the institutional life, on development a long-term relationship between university and graduates on one hand and between university and industry on the other hand etc. The common issue among all these subjects is the learning experience that is provided to students through all the activities in higher education institutions. What can be done or develop in order to generate a great learning experience starts from a correct, but flexible understanding of the concept. What can be institutionally changed for the benefit of a higher learning experience need a clear recognition of what more experienced institutions have already achieved. The objectives of the paper include: a) a clear understanding of the learning experience concept; b) an overview of the current characteristics of the learning experience providers; c) a start-up strategy for generating learning experience. All these objectives are integrated in a literature review approach as well as in a qualitative study dedicated to the perceptions of students and academics on what learning experience means and what institutionally can be improved. The findings reveal a possible model for building up a learning experience strategy for Romanian higher education institutions.