The EU has launched four flagship initiatives to implement the European Strategy for Universities, and European Universities is one of them. The European Union aims to have 60 European Universities by 2024, which together will include more than 500 universities. Our alliance, AcrossEU, was awarded a Seal of Excellence in 2022 and 2023. This distinction goes to applications of high quality but that were not awarded funding due to limitations in the budget for that call. The next call in 2024 will be the last of five funding calls, and will award funding to at least ten additional alliances. Deadline is 6 February.
Cathrine Norberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
Through AcrossEU, we work to increase student and staff mobility, but also to strengthen each university's international competitiveness in education, research and public outreach. What permeates the application, which is our narrative and uniqueness, is that all universities are comprehensive universities with strong regional commitment. Regional authorities are included in the application, and for Umeå University's part, also Umeå Municipality. We have long experience from including and engaging people from all layers of society – both geographically and socially. We have the knowledge and opportunity to work across disciplines within our alliance, which is something other existing alliances lack as they are profiled in a certain field.
For Umeå University, the AcrossEU collaboration offers an opportunity to contribute to and influence the development of the European education and research landscape. An important part of the alliance is to jointly safeguard European democratic values and counter challenges such as populism and fake news. Another part is to promote and contribute with inspiration and knowledge about gaining regional support. Umeå University in particular has a long tradition of including the community. For a long time, we have expanded our expertise in inclusive and flexible learning. I also find that the alliance enables universities to spread knowledge about the importance of academic values also outside of academia, and what the consequences are when academic freedom is questioned or threatened.
AcrossEU is a collaboration that goes hand in hand with our vision statement. Through this alliance, we can attract a diversity of students to enrich our academic community. The AcrossEU collaboration is also a valuable driving force when it comes to achieving the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. The alliance contributes to Umeå University's global competitiveness and positioning.
To aid us in the final application round, AcrossEU has taken in an external reviewer to support the process. At the moment, we are tweaking our mission statement, which permeates the application and activities making up the collaboration within the alliance. Trying to draft this mission statement and application is an intense and truly developing work demanding many meetings and checkups. The vice-chancellors in the alliance recently met in Brussels and they share the approach that this collaboration is a long-term endeavour. Sharing this insight is an important basis that forms our alliance.
AcrossEU collaboration affects the whole University and will affect our courses and study programmes in many ways in the long run. Within the alliance, several topics are discussed when it comes to the opportunity to study at other universities in a practical way, credit transfer, flexible courses, micro-credentials, shared supervision of doctoral students, and joint and double degrees. Other topics of discussion are career guidance for students, increased need for courses instructed in English, and to offer entire programmes together. Research collaborations have already started and the alliance is opening up for more exciting opportunities. As one example, AI researchers met this spring at our alliance university in Pardubice.
Collaborations within AcrossEU are inspiring, challenging and necessary. At the end of the day, it's all about quality and competitiveness for Umeå University to maintain a strong national and international position.