The Code of Ethics serves as a foundational framework that establishes the ethical standards and expectations for all members of our university. It reflects our commitment to uphold the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and respect in our professional and academic endeavors.

Article 90 (Principles)

(1) In teaching and university research activities, as well as in management, it is mandatory to comply with the norms of university ethics and deontology, as outlined in this Code of University Ethics and Deontology.

(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) are mandatory from the date of adoption of this Charter for all members of the ASE university community, as well as for other individuals who were previously members of the university community of the institution.

(3) The ASE Code of University Ethics and Deontology promotes the following fundamental principles and values:

a) Loyalty to ASE. Members of the ASE university community make efforts, in good faith, to fulfill the mission of ASE and do not damage the university’s image.
b) Moral and professional integrity. Members of the ASE university community adopt moral conduct in any context, in accordance with this Code of University Ethics and Deontology, and strive to enhance the university’s prestige.
c) Community cooperation and non-confrontational attitude. Members of the ASE university community cooperate and maintain a non-confrontational attitude to avoid generating or engaging in conflicts within ASE.
d) Honest competition. Competition among members of the ASE university community, whether individually or in teams, is conducted solely to enhance ASE’s prestige, avoiding conflicts.
e) Respect for scientific probity. Members of the ASE university community acknowledge and respect the scientific achievements of other members of the university community and support these achievements in any context.
f) Moral responsibility and commitment to ASE. Members of the ASE university community take on, both individually and as a group, the mission and objectives of ASE, orient their professional activities accordingly, and support the final decisions taken the university’s decision-making bodies.
g) Non-discrimination and fairness, equal opportunities, free and equal access to material resources and services. Members of the ASE university community, both individually and as a group, apply equal treatment to all, without discrimination based on any particular characteristic, such as — but not limited to — gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, personal convictions, possible disability, age, or sexual orientation.
h) Appropriate moral conduct towards students. Teaching and research staff, auxiliary teaching and research staff, as well as administrative personnel at ASE, always treat students objectively, fairly, impartially, and without discrimination.
i) Balanced behavior. Members of the ASE university community avoid, in any context related to ASE, abusive behavior or lack of engagement.
j) Respect and acceptance. Any form of harassment within the university environment is prohibited.

Article 91 (Framework)

(1) In promoting and defending academic freedom and university autonomy, in direct relation to equity, the Code of University Ethics and Deontology expresses the principles and rules that members of the ASE university community agree to respect and follow in their professional activities, establishes reference standards and sanctions to which they are exposed, and aims to define the moral profile and desirable behavior of the members of the ASE university community.
(2) The following principles of conduct constitute key elements of the ASE Code of University Ethics and Deontology:
a) Members of the ASE university community maintain appropriate moral conduct in any context, always concerned with enhancing their own and ASE’s prestige;
b) To resolve any dissatisfaction among members of the ASE university community, whether individual or collective, all the specific stages of the hierarchical process will be followed in succession;
c) Members of the ASE university community have a moral obligation to take the necessary measures to avoid the occurrence of overwork, including implementing anticipatory and prudent managerial policies that reduce the risk of such situations, as well as timely fulfilling work obligations;
d) Members of the ASE university community adopt morally correct attitudes to avoid situations where a member of the ASE university community is harassed another member or group of members;
e) Scientific research is conducted with the guarantee of applying norms of good conduct, respecting human beings and dignity, and protecting and restoring the natural environment and ecological balance.

Article 92 (Ethics Committee)

(1) To ensure compliance with the provisions of this code, the ASE University Ethics Committee is established and operates with a 4-year mandate. The ASE University Ethics Committee acts independently of any other structure or person within the institution.
(2) Within the ASE University Ethics Committee, there is a subcommittee dedicated to research ethics. This subcommittee oversees the implementation of research ethics policies, in accordance with scientific research ethics regulations, which must cover the following aspects: publication and authorship, respect for the dignity of research participants, management of research data, collaboration, conflicts of interest, fraud, ensuring effective research environments, and preventing damage in research and innovation.
(3) Various individuals, including representatives from the Legal and Administrative Litigation Directorate of the institution, may attend meetings of the University Ethics Committee as guests.
(4) The University Ethics Committee operates based on its own regulations, adopted the ASE University Senate.
(5) The ASE University Ethics Committee has the following responsibilities:
a) monitors compliance with this Code of University Ethics and Deontology within ASE;
b) ensures the implementation of ministerial orders to maintain the legal framework in the field of university ethics and deontology;
c) analyzes and resolves deviations from university ethics and deontology norms, based on complaints received from members of the university community or from outside ASE, or through self-referral, determining, if applicable, the sanctions to be applied;
d) contributes to the development of the Code of University Ethics and Deontology making proposals to the University Senate for adoption and inclusion in the ASE Charter;
e) prepares an annual report on the situation of compliance with university ethics and deontology norms, which is presented to the rector and the University Senate — which adopts it — and constitutes a public document;
f) engages in preventive activities concerning violations of university ethics and deontology norms; in this sense, it can directly address the ASE university community — the entire community or specific groups — through institutional email or personal pages, with warning messages as a preventive action and to establish a proactive paradigm in respecting university ethics and deontology norms, as well as combating unethical behavior;
g) fulfills the role of an ethics advisor, particularly teaching staff members, each for the faculty they represent;
h) monitors the conduct of ethics and academic integrity courses;
i) proposes to the University Senate for adoption the ASE University Ethics Committee’s own organization and operating regulations;
j) collaborates with national consultative committees.
(6) Decisions of the ASE University Ethics Committee are approved the representative of the Legal and Administrative Litigation Directorate. The legal responsibility for the decisions and activities of the University Ethics Committee lies with ASE.

Article 93 (Conflict of interest)

(1) A conflict of interest is a situation in which a person has or could have a personal interest of a material or non-material nature that could influence the objective and impartial fulfillment of their duties.
(2) Personal interest represents any advantage, material or otherwise, sought or obtained, directly or indirectly, for oneself or for another, teaching, research, and administrative staff who permanently or temporarily hold a management, administrative, or control position, using the reputation, influence, facilities, relationships, and information to which they have access exercising that position.
(3) Teaching and research staff, as well as auxiliary teaching and research staff and administrative personnel at ASE (Academy of Economic Studies), are in a conflict of interest in the following situations:
a) Holding a management position according to Article 49, paragraph (1), a person who is a spouse, relative marriage, or relative up to the third degree inclusive, with another person, if the first person is in a direct position of leadership, control, authority, or institutional evaluation over the second person at any level within ASE;
b) Participation as a member in doctoral committees, evaluation committees – including teaching and final university examination evaluation committees – or selection committees, if the decision affects spouses, relatives, or relatives marriage up to the third degree inclusive, as well as the scientific supervision of the spouse, relatives marriage, or relatives up to the third degree;
c) A person holding a leadership position participating in the evaluation of the spouse, relatives marriage, or relatives up to the third degree;
d) Participation in the same committee, formed according to the law, of persons who are spouses, relatives, or relatives marriage up to the third degree inclusive;
e) Participation of a member of the ASE university community, who is a member of a committee of the Ministry of Education, in analyzing a situation related to ASE.
(4) Decisions or acts adopted or concluded under conditions of conflict of interest are considered as such, including those of deliberative bodies where at least one member is in a conflict of interest and has not abstained from voting or debates.
(5) In the event of a conflict of interest, teaching, research, or administrative staff are obliged to cease any activities provided in paragraph (3) and immediately inform the person to whom they are directly subordinated. The latter is required to take the necessary measures to ensure the impartial conduct of specific activities within a maximum of 3 days from the date of notification.
(6) In cases specified in paragraph (5), upon the proposal of the person to whom the concerned teaching, research, or administrative staff is directly subordinated, another person with the same qualifications and level of experience is designated.

Article 94 (Incompatbility regulations)

(1) In accordance with legal provisions, incompatibility implies prohibitions on the simultaneous exercise of certain functions and dignities.
(2) Incompatibility at the ASE level, according to applicable legislation, concerns leadership, control, authority, and evaluation aspects:
a) When a person holds or simultaneously exercises a management position according to Article 49, paragraph (1), and another management position from this category;
b) When a person holds or exercises a management position according to Article 49, paragraph (1), and is appointed or elected as a minister, state secretary, mayor, deputy mayor, or president of the county council;
c) When the authorizing officer within ASE holds or exercises, concurrently, another position as the authorizing officer of a central or local public institution;
d) When a person holds both the position of member of the ASE Board of Directors and the position of associate or shareholder in a commercial company established ASE under the conditions of Article 16, paragraph (1) of Law No. 199/2023 on Higher Education, with subsequent amendments and completions;
e) When a person holds a management position at ASE and holds shares or stocks in a company that has commercial contracts, work contracts, or service contracts with the university.
(3) Persons in situations of incompatibility as defined in paragraph (2) have 15 days to eliminate the incompatibility, including suspending from one of the positions.

Article 95 (Ethics and Deontology)

The norms of university ethics and deontology include:
a) norms of ethics and deontology in university teaching and research activities;
b) norms of ethics and deontology in communication, publication, dissemination, and scientific popularization activities;
c) norms of ethics and deontology in the exercise of responsibilities related to management positions;
d) norms of ethics and deontology regarding the respect of human dignity and rights.

Article 96 (Violations)

(1) Violations of the ethics and deontology norms in teaching and research activities members of the ASE university community include:
a) Fabricating results or data and presenting them as experimental data, data obtained through calculations or numerical simulations, or data/results from analytical calculations or deductive reasoning;
b) Falsifying experimental data, data obtained through calculations or numerical simulations, or data/results from analytical calculations or deductive reasoning;
c) Deliberately obstructing, impeding, or sabotaging the teaching or research activities of others, including unjustified blocking of access to university research spaces, damaging, destroying, or tampering with experimental equipment, documents, software, or electronic data necessary for other individuals to conduct, execute, or complete teaching or research activities;
d) Selling scientific works to facilitate falsifying authorship;
e) Attempting to pass an exam bribery or exerting pressure from within or outside ASE, regardless of the means through which this materializes;
f) Violating the legal regime of conflict of interest and incompatibilities provided in Articles 93 and 94 and failing to disclose situations of conflicts of interest or incompatibilities in evaluation activities;
g) Breaching confidentiality in evaluations;
h) Discrimination in evaluations based on the criteria specified in Article 2, paragraph (1) of Government Ordinance No. 137/2000, as republished and subsequently amended;
i) Cheating in evaluation;
j) Plagiarism.

(2) Violations of ethics and deontology norms in communication, publication, dissemination, and scientific popularization activities include:
a) Including a person in the list of authors of a scientific publication without their consent;
b) Publishing or disseminating unauthorized results, hypotheses, theories, or scientific methods that are unpublished the authors;
c) Introducing false information in grant or funding applications, habilitation applications, or for academic or research positions.

(3) Violations of ethics and deontology norms in the exercise of responsibilities related to management positions include:
a) Violating the legal regime of public accountability;
b) Abusing authority to obtain authorship or co-authorship of subordinate staff’s publications;
c) Abusing authority to obtain salaries, remuneration, or other material benefits from research-development projects led or coordinated subordinates;
d) Abusing authority to secure salaries, remuneration, or other material benefits for spouses, relatives marriage, or relatives up to the third degree inclusive;
e) Obstructing the activities of the university Ethics Committee or an analysis committee during investigations of violations of university ethics and deontology;
f) Disregarding legal provisions and procedures regarding university ethics and deontology as stipulated in Law No. 199/2023 on Higher Education, with subsequent amendments and completions, and in the University Code of Ethics and Deontology, including failure to implement sanctions determined the university Ethics Committee, CNATDCU, or CNEMU.

(4) Violations of norms concerning the respect of human dignity and rights include:
a) Violations that harm the protection of the rights of direct beneficiaries of the right to education, such as:
i) Demanding or accepting favors of any kind, gifts, or other material benefits from students;
ii) Engaging in paid activities for the benefit of students outside the institutional framework;
iii) Conditioning student participation in any form of examination on the purchase of bibliographic materials;
iv) Requiring a student to perform unpaid activities for the benefit of the teacher, their spouse, or a relative up to the third degree.

b) Violations that tarnish the dignity of direct beneficiaries of the right to education and the prestige of the profession, such as:
i) Discrimination within the university community based on age, ethnicity, sex, gender, class, disability, social origin, political or religious orientation, sexual orientation, or other types of discrimination, except for “positive action” measures provided law;
ii) Physical violence, offensive language, or abuse of authority against a member of the university community;
iii) Personal attacks, intimidation, threats, humiliation, blackmail, or defamatory statements against other university community members;
iv) Repeatedly making unfounded complaints or reports against a colleague.

c) Violations that damage the recognition of the profession, responsibility, and trust conferred society, including failure to observe internal obligations derived from this trust, as well as engaging in activities that harm ASE’s image, through propaganda and institutional destabilization actions, disinformation campaigns in the media, or other activities that may affect the fulfillment of the institution’s mission.

Article 97 (Definitions)

According to legislation, the following terms and expressions are defined as follows:
a) Co-author of a publication – any person listed as an author of a scientific publication;
b) Fabrication of results or data – reporting fictitious results or data that are not the real outcome of a research-development activity;
c) Discrimination – any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, social category, beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, chronic non-contagious disease, HIV infection, belonging to a disadvantaged category, as well as any other criterion that has the purpose or effect of restricting or eliminating the recognition, use, or exercise, under conditions of equality, of human rights and fundamental freedoms, or rights recognized law, in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres or in any other fields of public life;
d) Falsification of results or data – selective reporting or rejection of data or unwanted results, manipulation of representations or illustrations, alteration of experimental or numerical equipment to obtain desired data without reporting the alterations made, in order to distort scientific truth;
e) Harassment – any behavior based on race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, social category, beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, belonging to a disadvantaged category, age, disability, refugee or asylum status, or any other criterion that leads to the creation of an intimidating, hostile, degrading, or offensive environment;
f) Sexual harassment – repeatedly demanding sexual favors within an employment relationship or between higher education staff and students, if this causes the victim to be intimidated or placed in a humiliating situation;
g) Plagiarism – presenting as a personal creation or scientific contribution in a written work, including in electronic format, of texts, ideas, demonstrations, data, theories, results, or scientific methods taken from written works, including in electronic format, of other authors, without mentioning this and without citing the original sources;
h) Psychological violence (bullying) – the action or series of physical, verbal, relational, and/or cyber actions, in a difficult-to-avoid social context, carried out intentionally, which involve a power imbalance, resulting in a breach of dignity or the creation of an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive atmosphere, directed against a person or group of people, and aimed at aspects of discrimination and social exclusion, which may be related to belonging to a certain race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, social category, or disadvantaged category, or to beliefs, sex, or sexual orientation, personal characteristics, behaviors that occur within educational institutions and all spaces intended for education and professional training.

Article 98 (Reporting)

(1) Persons who have been or are members of the university community and have committed violations of university ethics and deontology norms are subject to civil, administrative, professional, or disciplinary liability, as appropriate.
(2) Violations of university ethics and deontology norms are verified the University Ethics Committee of ASE.
(3) Any person may report to the University Ethics Committee of ASE regarding an act that may constitute a violation of university ethics and deontology. The report is submitted in writing or online and is registered at the ASE registry.

Article 99 (Sanctions)

(1) Based on the decisions of the University Ethics Committee, the institution applies sanctions to teaching, auxiliary teaching, and research staff, as well as administrative staff, including those in management positions, and also to students, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, or other categories of trainees.
(2) The sanctions established the University Ethics Committee of ASE are implemented the decision of the Rector.
(3) The sanctions that can be applied to teaching and research staff, as well as auxiliary teaching and research staff and administrative staff, the University Ethics Committee of ASE for violations of university ethics and deontology norms are as follows:
a) Written warning;
b) Withdrawal and/or correction of all works published in violation of university ethics and deontology norms;
c) Dismissal from management positions;
d) Prohibition, for a determined period, of access to funding from competitive public funds;
e) Suspension, for a determined period between one and five years, of the right to participate in a competition for occupying a higher position or a management position, or the right to be appointed as a member in competition committees;
f) Dismissal from teaching or research positions.

(4) The sanctions that can be applied to students, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, or other categories of trainees for violating university ethics and deontology norms are as follows:
a) Written warning;
b) Cancellation of evaluation results;
c) Expulsion;
d) Other sanctions provided the applicable normative acts.
(5) Presenting a purchased, copied, or falsified work a student or doctoral student as part of their professional obligations is punished expulsion.
(6) Presenting a purchased, copied, or falsified work a student for the purpose of taking the final exam is punished expulsion, without the right to re-enroll at ASE.

Article 100 (Standards)

Bachelor’s theses, dissertations, doctoral and postdoctoral theses are checked to ensure originality through an anti-plagiarism system recognized the relevant ministry.

Article 101 (Training)

Methods for training and assisting university community members, as well as principles for managing ethical risks and mechanisms for reporting and protecting victims, will be provided in the Regulation on the Organization and Operation of the University Ethics Committee.