Artifex University of Bucharest is a higher education institution, a legal entity of public utility according to private law and part of the national education system. Headquartered in Bucharest, the university was established as an effect of Act no. 133/2005. Artifex University of Bucharest operates according to the principle of universities' autonomy – within the legal framework provided by the Romanian Constitution, the National Education Act and its own charter. The founder of Artifex University of Bucharest is the National Technical, Scientific, Social and Cultural Foundation of the Crafting Cooperatives. The autonomy of Artifex University of Bucharest includes the following forms of autonomy: organizational and functional autonomy, teaching and scientific autonomy, financial and administrative autonomy, jurisdictional autonomy. Background Artifex University of Bucharest continues a tradition which legally began in the year 1919, when the School of Co-operative Studies was founded under the Act of January 3, with the endorsement of Professors Ion Răducanu and Nicolae Iorga. Towards the end of the same year, the School became the Academy for High Co-operative Studies and it was subsequently re-organized during the inter-war period by the acts that regulated cooperative activities. On September 2, 1946, under the provisions of Act no. 707 and Decree no. 2700, the Academy for Co-operative Studies was established and one year later, under the provisions of Act no. 299/1947, the Academy for Co-operative Studies and the Academy for Commercial and Industrial Studies of Bucharest were re-organized into the Academy of Commercial and Cooperative Studies, which included: the Faculty of Cooperative Studies and the Faculty of Commercial Sciences. Decree no. 175/1948 changed the name of the Academy into the “Institute for Economic Sciences and Planning” of Bucharest. In 1949, the Co-operative Faculty was set up within this institute. In 1967, the economic higher education was re-organized and the name of the institution was changed into the Academy of Economic Studies. In keeping with the tradition of the Academy for Co-operative Studies and in order to answer the demand for higher-educated professionals, the Council of UCECOM decided to establish the Artifex National Technical, Scientific, Social and Cultural Foundation of the Crafting Cooperatives, by Decision no. 8 of 1992 and according to the legal provisions of the Law-Decree no. 66 of February 8, 1990. (To keep the tradition and preserve continuity, the name “ARTIFEX” comes from Latin and it translates as “craftsman” or “artisan”). The newly founded institution was a legal