25 universities join European University Networks
A further 25 German universities have now been added to the country’s European University Networks (EUN) national initiative, supporting the establishment of ‘European Universities’ across the European Union.
The European Universities Initiative is one of the outcomes of the 2017 Gothenburg Summit, where European leaders discussed education and culture issues. The initiative was established to strengthen strategic partnerships across the EU and encourage the emergence of around 20 ‘European Universities’ by 2024, incorporating networks of universities which are to enable students to obtain degrees by combining studies in several EU countries.
It is the one of the flagship initiatives of the EU’s ambitions to build a European Education Area.
Why has the UK ditched participation in Erasmus+?
The loss of UK access to the Erasmus+ programme post-Brexit has inspired widespread sadness and anger in the United Kingdom. The reactions have run the gamut of “Erasmus changed my life” to “it will blow a hole in the UK economy”, “many employers deeply value the kind of international experience the Erasmus scheme helps foster” and regret for losing out on the chance of “ensuring that we are viewed as an open, tolerant and welcoming country to the rest of the world”.
There has also been sympathetic international reaction to participation in Erasmus being dropped.
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The European Commission supports the European University Alliance FORTHEM, coordinated by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), in implementing a new project under the EU Framework Program Horizon 2020. In the new FIT FORTHEM project, short for Fostering Institutional Transformation of R&I Policies in European Universities , the seven FORTHEM partners will develop network-wide strategies for research and innovation, address open science policies, and design a common research agenda for all FORTHEM partners that will allow the alliance to sustainably pursue its ambitious goals. The EU is funding the three-year project with EUR 2 million from the Horizon 2020 program Science with and for Society. Thus, the European Commission bolsters the alliance s next ambitious steps on its way of becoming an exemplary European University.
These updates are republished press releases and communications from members of the Science|Business Network
European University Association: Relief and satisfaction as EU programmes greenlighted to start next year
After the longest negotiations ever on the seven-year European budget, member states managed to find a compromise at the European summit on 10 December to overcome the veto of Hungary and Poland. The two countries had contested the mechanism linking the disbursement of EU funds to the respect of the rule of law, stalling the budget’s final approval.
The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on 16 December and while some uncertainties remain, the seven-year EU budget, the 2021 EU budget, and programmes such as Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, will be likely ready and operational in time. This is good news for the university community, as a delayed start of these key programmes was a concrete possibility evoked over recent weeks.