60 Years of Textiles and Leather Higher Education in Iasi
1952	2012

Short history

The University

The first attempt to set up a form of higher education in the region of Moldova took place in 1562 when the Latin School in the village of Cotnari, near Iasi was founded. But it was only in 1813 when the scholar Gheorghe Asachi founded the first school for surveyors and civil engineers. This school can be considered the nucleus of the technical higher education in Moldova. Later on, the school is developed within the Michaelian Academy (1835), and afterwards within the University of Iasi, established in 1860.

In 1937, “Gh. Asachi” Polytechnic Institute of Iasi was founded as a separate institution, drawing together a number of engineering departments in an independent institution. In 1993, its name was changed to “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi.

The Faculty

The beginnings of the textile education in Romania are closely connected with those of the other technical branches. The subject of textiles and leather studies gained the status of self-standing subjects for the first time in Romania in 1921 when a “Textile Conference” took place in Iasi. After successive content and structure reorganizing, these incipient forms of textile education led to the establishment in Bucharest in 1934 of the Higher School of Textiles. In 1948 the education reform changes it into the School of Textile Engineering, a section of the “Politehnica” University in Bucharest.

A new period of development and reorganizing culminated in 1952 in the merging of the Textile Engineering Schools in Iaşi and Bucharest in School of Textile and Leather Engineering in Iasi, the only school of the higher textile training in Romania. Since 1955 the School of Textile and Leather Engineering has been within the Technical University “Gh. Asachi” of Iaşi, in a similar structure to the present-day one and has continued to develop in size and prestige. In 2007, its name was changed to the “Faculty of Textiles, Leather and Industrial Management”.

In 1995 the faculty has become a member of AUTEX (Association of Universities for Textiles) and starting with 2000, The Textile Institute of Manchester began to recognize our graduate diplomas.

At present, around one hundred academic staff is training over 1300 students yearly. Comprising all education levels, the Faculty awards the following degrees: Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctoral Degree in the fields of Industrial Engineering, Industrial Chemistry and Industrial Management.

The CORTEP conference is organized together with 46th IFKT Congress - IFKT 2012

Selected papers will be published in ISI and other Databases journals.