The University of Galați, as it was named at first, was founded in July 1974 by merging the Polytechnical Institute and the College of Education. The Polytechnical Institute of Galați had at its origins the Naval and Mechanical Engineering Institute which has been founded in 1951. In 1953, the Institute of Fish Breeding and Fishing Technology located in the city of Constanța merged with the Naval Institute of Galați under the name of Technical Institute of Galați. In 1955, the Institute for Food Industry of Bucharest was also transferred at Galați. This higher education institutions was to become in 1957 the Polytechnical Institute of Galați. The College of Education, founded in 1959 consisted of five faculties: Languages, Mathematics, Physics-Chemistry, Natural Sciences and Sports. The two higher education institutions, the Polytechnical Institute and the College of Education, merged in 1974 and formed the University of Galați. In 1991, the University was renamed "Dunărea de Jos" University, after the historical name of the area around the city of Galați.
Organization
The University of Galați consists of twelve faculties and two colleges with more than thirty departments. It has several unique fields of education in the country, such as: Naval Engineering and Fishery. During the years, specialists covering a wide range of education fields have been trained at the University of Galați:
Engineers
Teachers
Economists
Programmers and Computer System Designers.
New university programmes has been developed in the last years: Management in Industry, Finances and Credit, International Economics Relations, Administration and Technical Informatics. Post-graduation courses for engineers and training courses for the teachers of the pre-university level are organised every year. The University of Galați organises programs for the doctoral degree and master's degree in the technical fields of chemistry, physics, mathematics, economy, food technology and fishing, automatic control and computation techniques, artificial intelligence. The University of Galați is also providing programs for the doctoral degree in the field of social and humanistic sciences. The university has 14 faculties, one cross–border faculty, and one department:
