The Romanian University of Cluj made constant efforts to establish and consolidate a constantly expanding network of cooperation with similar institutions from Europe and even beyond the borders of the “old continent”. The long process of international affirmation began shortly after the Romanian University was organized in Cluj, at the end of the First World War. The tradition of “western education” among Romanian intellectuals facilitated the first institutional contacts with Western European Universities, especially from France and Germany. Such a tradition was missing in relation with the North-American academic community. Nevertheless, the first contacts with American higher education and research institutions were initiated during the interwar period.

In this article the impact of American universities will be analysed, as a model of institutional organization, during the early years of the Romanian University of Cluj. In the first decades of the 20^th century American universities were perceived as an innovative model, different form the traditional rigidity of European universities, based on functionality and social involvement. In the second part of the article the focus will be on identifying the various means of academic cooperation and their influence on the teaching and research process in the University of Cluj: academic mobility, the access to American scientific literature, the exchange of publications between the University of Cluj and similar institutions in the U.S.A., conferences and other scientific events, the presence of professors from Cluj in American scientific societies, etc.