Getting higher education working for a greener Europe
Many higher education institutions in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are addressing environmental sustainability in their research and education missions. They are actively involved in a broad range of forward-thinking activities, both to green their own institutions’ footprint and to contribute to society.
By working with a wide range of partners, from local communities to global university networks and industry, universities are proving themselves as key actors in the transition towards carbon neutrality and sustainable societies.
Notably, they play a role in the achievement of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal and its goals of leading global efforts towards a just green transition.
EU members ‘must step up’ for European Universities
The Council of the European Union, comprising ministers of EU member states, has called on European governments and higher education systems to support the European Universities Initiative (EUI) and make it a central to building a European Education Area by 2025.
The ministers have urged more cooperation between education authorities, higher education institutions and stakeholders to remove obstacles to European level cooperation.
In this context, they suggest exploring the need for and feasibility of joint European degrees within the alliance of ‘European Universities’.
The call came in conclusions, “The European Universities Initiative – Bridging higher education, research, innovation and society: paving the way for a new dimension in European higher education”, adopted on 17 May at a Council education ministers’ meeting moderated by Manuel Heitor, minister of science, technology and higher education of Por
Studying in Germany: From finance to fraternities
However, Driesman added that universities in the EU are gradually catching up Not only producing more academic content in English but also teaching more classes in the world s lingua franca.
A key driver of this shift towards English-language education has been the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), a collaboration established in 2010 between higher education institutions in the EU as well as those in parts of Eurasia.
The number of English-taught bachelor s programs offered by institutions in EHEA countries rose from almost none in 2009 to nearly 3,000 by 2017, according to an EHEA study that year. For English-taught postgraduate programs, the number rose from 725 in 2001 to more than 8,000 by 2014.
Most Southeast Asian students dream of studying in a British or an American university, with Japanese higher education schools also gaining popularity in the region. European universities are lagging behind.