Delegates from Argentina, Cameroon, China, Germany, Georgia, Malaysia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, and the United States converged at the third annual Conference of Global Advancement of Universities and Colleges (GAUC) at Danubius University in Galati, Romania, on May 29. The three-day conference focused on ways of improving the quality of higher education.

Host Dr. Andy Pusca, Rector of Danubius University, opened the conference welcoming distinguished guests. Dr. Steve O. Michael, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for Arcadia University and co-founder of the GAUC conference, offered opening remarks to esteemed colleagues in attendance.

The Plenary Session immediately followed, with Dr. Michael leading a Panel of Four Nations (USA, Romania, Russia and China). The theme, “How do the represented countries assure the quality of their higher education?” facilitated a discourse on the challenges of improving the quality of education across the institutions. Participating were: Dr. Andy Pusca, Rector Danubius University, Romania; William B. Harvey, Dean, School of Education, North Carolina A&T State University; Sergey Zapryagaev, Former Vice Rector & Professor of Physics, Voronezh State University and Chief of Accreditation Project for Association of Classical Universities in Russia; Ruiqing Du, Vice President for International Programs, X’ian International University, China; Li Weimin, Executive Chairman of China Non-Government Education Association, China; and Ion Guceac, General Secretary of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Republic of Moldova.

Local and regional media, including VOX TV, Monitorul, and Antidotul, covered the conference. Journalists were on hand at Danubius to capture the conference and interview dignitaries and leaders. An article was also published on Doing Business.

The GAUC conference was conceived in 2011 to address the issues of quality assurance and internationalization of higher education. Previous conferences were held at Xi’an International University in Xi’an, China, and Voronezh State University in Voronezh, Russia.