To mark the International Day of Education on Friday 24 January, the European Commission has published a report on the results and transformative potential of the European Universities Initiative.
Five years after it was set up, the document attests to the leading role played by this cooperation of 65 alliances bringing together more than 570 institutions from 35 countries, including all the EU Member States.
This would represent a new model for transnational cooperation, “with a long-term strategic perspective”, enabling institutions to be “competitive on a global scale”.
While further progress and efforts are still needed to reach the 50% student mobility target, in their first three years of existence, these alliances have achieved a 400% increase of intra-alliance students’ mobility, and a 200% increase in staff mobility since 2019.
However, the alliances and higher education stakeholders at European level have noted discrepancies between, on the one hand, the long-term strategic vision, their grand ambition and the depth and breadth expected of transnational cooperation activities and, on the other hand, their funding model.
For example, the Commission is currently working on an investment pathway for European University Alliances, aiming to propose a comprehensive long-term funding approach for the 2028-2034 financial programming period, complementing the core educational dimension funded by Erasmus+ with support for the other missions of all Alliances, seeking synergies with different EU instruments, as well as with national and regional funding.
To see the report: https://aeur.eu/f/f7p (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)