28 Shares
Andrew Gunn
reflects on the first few years of the initiative and assesses how it might help shape the future of European higher education.
The idea of a European University is as old as Europe’s political union itself. A supranational university was first mooted in 1948, and various proposals were discussed amongst the founding members in the early years of the European Community. However, none of these proposals came to fruition, owing to a lack of consensus amongst member states over what form it should take.
These discussions identify what would be an enduring fault line running through the European political project: is it about economics and trade or culture and social solidarity, or both? And where does higher education fit into both of these differing rationales?
How to succeed in the European Universities Initiative
The European Union has published European Universities Factsheets giving comparative information on the 41 European Universities Initiative (EUI) alliances currently in operation and making themselves ready for the mid-term review of the EUI later in 2021.
At the call of the two first rounds of the EUI it was explicitly stated by the EU Commission that the selected alliances are to serve as role models for “the path towards the EHEA [European Higher Education Area]”, and therefore it is of great interest for potential applicants and others to hear how these alliances have started operating their projects.
Is European Universities Initiative helping to build EHEA?
The European Universities Initiative has released new energy both for the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), according to a new analysis.
The activities now underway in the European university alliances, notably the legal side of establishing common degrees and cultural factors like the stronger influence of the student movements in the northern part of Europe, will determine the way forward, says the study by Dan Andrée, a senior advisor at Karolinska Institute who represents the Stockholm Trio (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University).
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UK universities plead to keep EU cash post-Brexit
British universities are lobbying hard to stay fully involved in a flagship EU scheme aimed at bringing higher education institutions closer together. As Brussels wrestles with the future of education cooperation on the Continent, U.K. institutions fear they could lose both funding and the vital academic links they gain from the European Universities Initiative (EUI).