Stem Students’ Progress in Two Romanian and United States of America Universities Before, During, and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Significant differences exist between the United States of America and European Union educational systems, linking the science, technologyTechnology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum, academic semester structure, timeline, and student body attending a STEM courseSTEM higher education. Readers must understand these fundamental differences and the need for changeChange when confronted with unprecedented challengesNational challenges to understand better how we lived through the COVID-19COVID-19 pandemicPandemic and how it affected STEM educationSTEM higher education in the following years. This chapter aims to mirror the reaction of two higher educationHigher education institutions, one from the USA, and one from the European Union (Romania)Romania, with different material bases, didactic strategiesStrategies, and educational platformsEducational platforms in a crisis like the pandemic. The credit hours system is vital in US education as the Europe Credit Transfer and Accumulation System is a crucial element for the students’ mobilities and recognition of qualifications between the universities in the framework of the Erasmus+ network. An equivalence between these American and European systems will be presented with the advantages assumed by them. Before, during, and after COVID-19COVID-19, a successful academic career is considered in terms of publications rather than teaching because the resources and the importance given to research are higher than those required for teaching. The balance between research and teaching should be rethought in higher education. The universities’ primary aims are to provide well-trained human resourcesHuman resources for the Labor market and to conduct high-quality research for the benefit of humanity. Only the future will prove what aim is the most important. The instructors teachingSTEM higher education STEM disciplines in higher educationHigher education meet challengesChallenges worldwide. They must make their subjects attractive and interactive to studentsStudents, stimulating their imagination and creativityCreativity and training them for future technologies and professions. Teaching methods constantly evolve, and generations changeChange. Each generation has different features and must be approached differently. The authors will point out some perspectives of the instruction profession.