European University Association

📢 Just published! In the ninth edition of the European University Association’s long-running series, #EUATrends 2024 provides an overview of how European higher education institutions experienced changes over the past five years due to higher education reforms, and in the wider context of societal, political, economic and technological changes, marked among others by the implications of Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine. The report also sheds light on how higher education institutions see their future direction. 📚🇪🇺📈 Based on survey responses from 480 higher education institutions in 46 European higher education systems, Trends 2024 analyses the institutions’ perspectives and strategies with regard to their multiple missions. It focuses on the education mission, changes in the student body and the education offer, learning and teaching enhancement, the rise of non-degree education, and developments in mobility and internationalisation. 📊🎓🌍✈️📚 📖🔗 Read the report at https://lnkd.in/eGJibcVX 📢🌐 Spread the word: European Students' Union (ESU), ENQA: European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, EURASHE, EQAR - European Quality Assurance Register, BusinessEurope, European Trade Union Committee for Education ETUCE-CSEE, European Commission, European Higher Education Area Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot, Vanessa Debiais-Sainton #highereducation #education #teachingandlearning #EUATrends #StudentMobility #Internationalisation #HigherEdReforms #StudentCenteredLearning #LifelongLearning #EDI

The European Universities Initiative created alliances with big goals, but they must also deal with a complex funding landscape. Five years in, Sophia Karner and Mariet Vriens from Una Europa describe what their first-hand experiences have taught them about achieving the alliance’s long-term vision: https://bit.ly/4eJwkR5 This article is based on a session on ‘Exploring a sustainable funding perspective for European Universities alliances’ facilitated by Sophia and Mariet, alongside their colleagues Séverine Bortot (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Anna Stina Sinisalo (University of Helsinki), at the 2024 #EUAFundingForum. #EuropeanUniversities #funding #EUAExpertVoices

What is the state of play of open repositories in Europe? To what extent are they are accessible to researchers, institutions and the wider public? Are they sufficiently interconnected or are there strategies in place to ensure their integration at a European and global scale? The European University Association will organise the webinar ‘Towards a strategic vision for open repositories in Europe’ on 3 December at 15.00-16.30 CET. Speakers: - Eloy Rodrigues, Director of the Libraries, Universidade do Minho, and member of the EUA Expert Group on Open Science - Melissa Harrison, Team Leader of Literature Services, European Bioinformatics Institute | EMBL-EBI - Stephanie Orphan, Program Director, arXiv - Niamh Brennan, Programme Manager for Research Informatics, Trinity College Dublin Moderator: Caroline Schober, member of the EUA Expert Group on Open Science This webinar will be of interest to institutional leaders (rectors, vice-rectors and heads of administration), research department staff, repository managers, university library staff, as well as representatives of other organisations involved in the development and management of open access infrastructure in Europe. Registrations remain open until the start of the webinar. Participation is free of charge: https://bit.ly/3AP0Xqt #openscience #openaccess

On 21 November, the European University Association’s first Research & Innovation Forum took place in Brussels. Almost a year after the launch of the EUA Research & Innovation Agenda 2027, this event provided an invaluable opportunity to look back at what EUA has achieved in the area of R&I and look ahead to new areas of activity together with our members. As such, the Forum brought together university leaders and experts closely involved in EUA’s work on R&I topics* for discussions on innovation, Open Science and the reform of academic career assessment. This was followed by a session on the current landscape, challenges and opportunities in European R&I with Marc Lemaître, the European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation. Secondly, the R&I Forum set about reflecting on future developments and trends at EU level that could shape R&I activities at universities. Through future thinking exercises, participants explored the role of university R&I in strengthening European competitiveness and prosperity with a view to being both responsive and proactive as a sector. The outcomes of this session will further enable the implementation of the EUA R&I Agenda and the Association’s various other workstreams. Finally, the Forum opened up to the public and fellow R&I stakeholders in Brussels. During a high-level roundtable, Maria Cristina Russo, Director for Prosperity at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Member of the European Parliament Lina Gálvez Muñoz and James Livesey, Vice-President for Research & Innovation at the University of Galway joined the debate on how to ensure that R&I promotes inclusive prosperity by strengthening the societal impact of universities and their transnational collaboration. Following a busy day of discussions, EUA Vice-President Paul Boyle noted that: “This is a critical moment in the evolution of the European research and innovation system. There is a growing consensus that research and innovation must be at the heart of driving European prosperity and competitiveness. Hence, the first EUA Research and Innovation Forum was held in Brussels to bring together senior leaders to discuss how this could be achieved.” He added that: “As we prepare for the next Multiannual Financial Framework, and reflect on the various ideas about how the next Framework Programme should be framed, this was a perfect opportunity to gather the views of colleagues. Our reflections will help shape EUA’s positioning over the next period, as we help to shape a more ambitious, collaborative and imaginative European research and innovation system.” *Participants included members of EUA’s #Research and #Innovation Strategy Group, representatives of EUA’s collective members (national rectors’ conferences and national university associations), as well as the chairs and vice-chairs of EUA’s Expert Group on Innovation and Expert Group on #OpenScience. Source: https://bit.ly/411aW6y #FP10

On 25 October 2024, the EUA Council approved the applications of 11 new #EUAmembers. The European University Association is pleased to welcome the following institutions as individual full members: La Rochelle Université (France) Széchenyi István Egyetem (Hungary) Ignatianum University in Krakow (Poland) Victor Babeş University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timişoaras (Romania) Universidad de Huelva (Spain) Bartın Üniversitesi (Türkiye) Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Türkiye) Gaziosmanpaşa Üniversitesi (Gaziosmanpasa University) (Türkiye) Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi (Türkiye) University of Warwick (United Kingdom) EUA also welcomes one institution as individual associate member: VIU - Universidad Internacional de Valencia (Spain) In addition, two organisations are now EUA affiliates: EVALAG (Evaluationsagentur Baden-Württemberg) (Germany) Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre (Germany) Across the Association’s different membership categories, EUA members benefit from a unique network and have access to a wealth of knowledge that contributes to universities’ development. Learn more at https://bit.ly/3Z1leRB

As the European Commission’s policy agenda for the next five years takes shape, three influential reports have placed research, innovation and education at the centre of proposals to reimagine the European economy. In this article, EUA's Thomas Jørgensen discusses what proposals put forward by Mario Draghi, Enrico Letta and Manuel Heitor mean for European higher education and research. There is a lot of good news for universities. But does this new agenda fully understand how universities contribute to goals such as competitiveness, and do politicians see universities solely as instruments for delivering narrow economic objectives? Read his #EUAExpertVoices article at https://bit.ly/3V4jrdj The full article is available on Research Professional News. #highereducation #research #DraghiReport #Letta #Heitor #EUpolitics

🚨 Registrations are open for the 2025 European Learning & Teaching Forum! 🎓 The 2025 #EUALearnTeach Forum's theme is "2030 and beyond: towards responsive and adaptable higher education". Building agility for unknown challenges that may emerge is a key issue for higher education learning and teaching. How can we prepare our students, teachers and institutions for the path ahead? 🧭 📅 27 - 28 February 2025 📍 University College Cork, Ireland 🇮🇪 Join this future-gazing edition of the European Learning & Teaching Forum, as we explore strategies to develop future-readiness in and through learning and teaching. Key questions include how higher education can safeguard its relevance through capacity for adaptation and how graduates can be equipped with responsive and adaptable mindsets. 💡🧩 ⏳ Early-bird registration deadline: 13 January 2025. After this date, standard registration fees will apply. Save your seat at https://lnkd.in/eaZ2gkFd #teachingandlearning #highereducation #agility #changemanagement #education

 🎙️ Why are futures thinking and foresight important tools for universities? In this first episode of our 'Universities Futures Lab' podcast series, EUA’s Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik talks to Chris Luebkeman, Head of the Strategic Foresight Hub, ETH Zürich, about how futures thinking and foresight are used for strategy development. 💡 💭 Chris explains that when using foresight you need to show your university some ‘tough love’, look at the big picture and dare to ask difficult questions. He describes why the future is a strange place for most people to visit, what foresight has to do with storytelling and how to create common vocabulary for meaningful and authentic exchanges about the future across the university. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and RSS. 🎧 Like, share and let us know what you think: https://lnkd.in/e5NHNc8Z #StrategicForesight #HigherEducation #FuturesThinking #Podcast #UniversitiesFuturesLab #UniversityStrategy #newpodcast

The 2025 EUA-CDE Thematic Workshop will highlight the central role of equity, diversity, and inclusion in doctoral education. The approach towards this topic varies significantly among European universities, reflecting the diverse national and institutional contexts. In some cases, doctoral schools have direct responsibility for implementing EDI-related activities, while in many institutions the overarching strategy is managed by the university. Given this complexity, #cdeWS2025 will explore how doctoral education can be instrumental in contributing to university-wide EDI policies –notwithstanding whether a university has long-established or emerging practices on the topic. 📅 16-17 January 2025 📍 Universidade do Minho, Portugal Save your seat at 🔗 https://bit.ly/3NI6FgF #EDI #DoctoralEducation #equity #diversity #inclusion #euacde

Interoperability in higher education refers to the ability for partner universities to seamlessly and securely share data across institutional and national boundaries. By allowing diverse systems to talk to each other and share information efficiently, there is the potential among networks of institutions to develop and expand access to common learning opportunities. Progress – and the challenges that come with this – are especially apparent within European Universities alliances, where the ambition to establish virtual campuses and scale up mobility have generated impetus in moving towards interoperable systems. This briefing presents the experiences of practitioners within EUA member universities and looks at some of the more commonly-experienced obstacles. Beyond the technical elements, it highlights the converging factors that have brought the topic to the forefront of discussion and explores possible scenarios for the evolution of interoperability within and beyond the European Universities alliances. Read it at https://bit.ly/4fra7sa #HigherEducation #Interoperability #EuropeanUniversities #DigitalTransformation #UniversityCollaboration