The paper compares the university education system in three countries: the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova and Romania. Even though they are part of different geo-political and cultural spaces, the three states have important similarities in higher education. In all three countries processes of university education reform have been carried out to modernize and adapt to the demands of globalization and the new communication society. Also, the relation to the trends and contents of European higher education has been and remains a constant of the managerial activity of education ministries and of other institutions with educational attributions. At the same time, there are differences between the higher education systems of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova and Romania, which come from the specifics of their evolution so far, but also from the society in which they operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]