Despite thorough work together with eight other universities in the AcrossEU alliance, this year's application was still not accepted. "We will be evaluating our efforts so far to learn and continue the collaboration we have started," says Cathrine Norberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor with particular responsibility for education.
This was the second consecutive year that Umeå University submitted an application to become a European University together with eight other universities in the strategic alliance AcrossEU. The vision is to set up European campuses between universities where students and staff can exchange knowledge across national borders and subject fields.
The last application that was submitted in 2022 was awarded a Seal of Excellence, which indicates it was a high-quality entry, but still no funding was awarded due to the limited budget of the call. In 2023, history repeats itself and the limited budget was again the reason for why the application was rejected despite the application again reaching the same high quality and highest score.
Ongoing collaboration between universities
Alliance collaborations have already started and the vice-chancellors of all partner universities have agreed to submit a renewed application in 2024 when the budget for accepting new alliances is said to be much bigger than in 2022 and 2023.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University with particular responsibility for education.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
"We will be evaluating our efforts so far to learn from them and to continue the collaboration we have started. We plan to continue to find structures for future knowledge exchanges and research collaborations together with the other universities in this alliance," says Cathrine Norberg.
Umeå University has long since put internationalisation high on its agenda and even if the application was not given the green light, work will still continue in line with Umeå University's four internationalisation areas of development.
This is AcrossEU
AcrossEU is a network consisting of nine comprehensive universities from eight Europeans countries representing nearly 160,000 students, 20,000 researchers and faculty members, and local and regional stakeholders. In AcrossEU, the joint work will be implemented through four centres that together promote teaching, research, innovation and entrepreneurship as well as outreach and public engagement.
Members of the alliance
- Umeå University, Sweden
- University of Lapland, Finland
- Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland
- University of Caen, France
- University of Siena, Italy
- Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
- University of Fribourg, Switzerland (associated member)
- University of Valladolid, Spain
- University of Pardubice, Czech Republic
Read more about AcrossEU
Read more about the European Universities initiative
Read what applications were accepted