In Brief

I am so ashamed of my home university!!!
I come from the University of Iasi, Romania. My home university is member of the second best university network (the best is Utrecht Network) in Europe, Coimbra Group.
These days my home university held a Coimbra Group workshop about Quality Culture and Excellence at Universities.
Here are the 38 European universities which form the Coimbra Group

Austria University of Graz Belgium Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Dutch-speaking) Université catholique de Louvain (French-speaking) Czech Republic Charles University in Prague Denmark University of Aarhus Estonia University of Tartu Finland Åbo Akademi University University of Turku France University of Lyon University of Montpellier (Montpellier is treated as 3 institutions) University of Poitiers Germany Georg-August University of Göttingen Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg Friedrich Schiller University of Jena University of Würzburg Greece Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Hungary Eötvös Loránd University Ireland National University of Ireland, Galway University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin, sole constituent college of the university)

Italy University of Bologna University of Padua University of Pavia University of Siena Netherlands University of Groningen Leiden University Norway University of Bergen Poland Jagiellonian University Portugal University of Coimbra Romania University of Iaşi Spain University of Barcelona University of Granada University of Salamanca Sweden Uppsala University Switzerland University of Geneva United Kingdom University of Bristol University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh University of Oxford

How many universities in the Coimbra Group do you think that wrote on their websites about this event which took place in Iasi, Romania?
ONLY 2 universities of 37! (except University of Iasi, of course)
I ask my readers to do as I did:
Step 1
Search on google.com for any webpage in any language for the following title (which is the title of the workshop): "Quality Culture and Excellence at Universities"
Step 2
You will find no more than 20 relevant results.
Step 3
Make a comparison between the results displayed in the Romanian Language and the results displayed in other languages than Romanian.
Step 4
Write down this conclusion:
Only two European universities of the Coimbra Group wrote about this event: Universidad de Granada and Universitat de Barcelona, both Spanish universities.

If I were the highest official in charge of the International Relations at the University of Iasi I would resign from office. The reason? I did not manage to convince other universities in the Coimbra Group that the university I represent should be considered on equal terms with all other universities. And as a vice rector, I could not duly represent my institution.

And I do not really understand why an university which does not fulfil the European and Romanian standards in higher education quality should even think about this topic to be addressed in Iasi! University of Iasi does not have a valid accreditation from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) or not even from the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS)!
I KNOW VERY WELL WHAT I AM SAYING
Main reasons why the University of Iasi is not a certified university regarding the quality assurance in higher education
-the number of students has nothing to do with demands of the of labour market
-the study groups are overcrowded, against the legal regulations
-there is no transparency in public spending at University of Iasi

Later edit 18/11/2008
If you want to google the event which took place in Iasi, you may want to use these word combinations for google: coimbra, iasi, 2008, workshop, ENC. You will get the same near-zero coverage of the event within the Coimbra Group.