The Role of Regional Geography in the Romanian Students’ Training, as Future Specialists in Tourism

During the last decade of the Romanian post-socialism, the higher education system of Romania encountered many curricular changes in order to adjust the Romanian student's instruction to the international requirements in education. In this respect, new educational contents and subjects were designed and included within the national curriculum aiming to provide, both a qualitative learning, and a proper instruction related to the real insertion of the students in the labour market. This article unveils some issues connected to a new geographic subject in terms of Regional Geography. It was recently included in the higher education curriculum of the students of the Tourism Geography Program from West University of Timişoara, Romania. The aim of this new subject was to provide a proper knowledge in the field of the regional issues of the world in addition to their future training as tourism specialists. This study illustrates the feed-back of the learning process of the Regional Geography taking into account the major trends in approaching the contents of this new subject. The methodological design of the research is based both on quantitative and qualitative methods. In order to evaluate the instruction progress of the students, we sampled two groups of 35 students each. They were surveyed using the questionnaires method in 2012 and 2013. The findings of the research illustrate the student's interest degree for this subject as well as some limits in their training. Nonetheless, Regional Geography seems to be a relevant subject in the contemporary students training as future specialists in tourism.