Europe is experiencing a new revolution in the model of university education. If the Erasmus program created in 1987 facilitated the mobility of students between EU countries and the Bologna process in 1999 initiated the process of harmonization of European university systems, andhe new project EUI (European Universities Initiative) of the European Commission goes further and wants to create a new concept of university in Europe: existing university confederations to promote total mobility among members of their communities. When the new consolidation phase ends, at the end of 2028, more than 500 universities in Europe – 10% of the existing ones – will be involved in one of the new universities. The idea is that none of these universities lose their autonomy or membership in the higher education system of their country, but they can act, for all intents and purposes, as a European University and provide European Qualifications to its students of all levels: bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate.
The project is funded by the EU under the umbrella of the Erasmus + program and, in this second phase, 1,100 million euros are allocated to the consortia that are chosen in the call that will open next December to qualify for the possibility of being one of the new European universities.
Barcelona, along with Paris, is the European city where more universities are involved in EUI projects. The UB, the UAB, the UPC and the UPF are in different consortia and, in Tarragona, the URV is also part of one.
The week of November 22 to 26 one of the future European Universities, Eutopia, celebrates the first face-to-face meeting since the start of the pandemic. It is an alliance of 10 universities that will join their campuses to open their degrees, their research and their transfer and innovation activities to all their students, professors, administration personnel and collaborating entities.
This metauniversity It will be present in 10 countries and will unite 10 universities and their cities. Barcelona, through the Pompeu Fabra University, will join with universities in Lisbon, Paris, Brussels, Gothenburg, Venice, Dresden, Ljubljana, Coventry and Cluj-Napoca. In total, more than 300,000 students, 45,000 teachers and administrators, 1,000 research groups and tens of thousands of ‘alumni’, as well as hundreds of partner institutions and companies.
Eutopia is one of the 41 university alliances that are currently testing the most important educational experiment in Europe after the creation of the Erasmus project, which, as is well known, has allowed millions of European students to enjoy a few months of mobility between European universities.
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These universities have to allow Europe to regain a preeminent position in the world in terms of higher education, looking into the eyes of the great universities of the USA or Asia-Pacific which at the moment attract a large majority of international students who want to study in the best universities in the world. It should be said that the European Universities will be, practically all, publicly owned and that they will be able to compete in quality with the best in the world with European public prices.
It will be necessary to see if the member countries of the EU are fully aware of the importance of this bet and facilitate the elimination of legal and regulatory obstacles that separate us when it comes to managing our national universities. A challenge that, if it goes well, will be another triumph for the Erasmus project and will represent a catalyst for the concept of Europe, as well as being a powerful social elevator for the new citizens of the European Union.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com