Introduction: One voyage. One community.
The Una Europa community spans more than half a million students, 100,000 members of staff and, over the course of 2022, has grown to include 11 partner universities; this year Una Europa warmly welcomed Universiteit Leiden, University College Dublin and Universität Zürich on board.
Transcending boundaries of geography, language, culture and discipline, this exceptional community is the true engine of voyage to a University of the Future, fuelled by a shared purpose and a common vision. And, as Una Europa reaches the culmination of 1Europe pilot project, Una Europa’s momentum shows no sign of lagging. Una Europa pauses to celebrate community’s many achievements over the past three years before looking to the future, as Una Europa embarks on the next leg of voyage to a University of the Future.
” In just three short years, Una Europa has made significant strides towards shared vision for a European University of the Future. We have launched Europe’s first truly joint Bachelor’s degree, advanced transdisciplinary doctoral education, and opened up flexible, inclusive learning pathways to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of transnational collaboration, shaping Europe’s shared future for the better. ” Peter Lievens, Vice Rector, KU Leuven, 1Europe Coordinator.
1. Mapping uncharted waters
As one of the first European University pilots selected by the European Commission in June 2019, Una Europa has been a pioneering force, shaping the international higher education landscape. With the knowledge and insights Una Europa has gained over the past three years, Una Europa has created manuals, handbooks and toolkits to shine a guiding light towards a European University of the Future – for own community and beyond.
2. Nine pilot programmes launched
Una Europa partners share a vision for a European University of the Future with high-quality international education and mobility at the core. Community’s passionate commitment to this vision is borne out not only by the quantity but the exceptional quality of educational programmes Una Europa has launched during pilot phase. Una Europa has gone beyond simply pooling resources, strategically maximising impact to create an outstanding joint academic offer and a truly European learning experience.
Una Europa’s nine unique pilot programmes include Joint Bachelor of Arts in European Studies, Europe’s first truly joint Bachelor’s degree, which welcomed more than 270 students in October 2022; truly transnational Joint Doctoral Programme in Cultural Heritage, currently recruiting its second cohort; and Micro-credential in Sustainability, which harnesses the potential of flexible, student-centred learning to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
- Joint Bachelor in European Studies
- Doctoral Programme in Cultural Heritage
- Joint PhD Workshops in Cultural Heritage
- Micro-credential in Sustainability
- Lifelong Learning Certificate in Sustainability
- Lifelong Learning Certificate in Data Science & AI
- AI in Society MOOC
- One Health Summer School
- Una Europa Chairs
una-europa.eu/study(opens in a new tab)
3. New ways to communicate
Building community means learning to communicate differently, weaving together over 1,000 years of collective heritage to tell new stories – with new faces, new voices and new perspectives.
- The Una Europa Podcast provides a platform for individuals from all corners of community to share their unique perspectives.
- Una Europa Talks invite policy experts, academics, practitioners and members of student community to probe the burning questions of the moment. Most recent Una Europa Talks explored Rights of Nature as a legal tool to safeguard the environment in Europe and the promise blockchain technology holds for students of the future.
- And Future UniLab – Una Europa’s visionary think tank – has creatively unravelled the very notion of communication itself. Watch the Future UniLab’s poem-video.
4. New ways to work together
Clusters, Working Groups and Task Forces have sought to tackle the challenges faced by students, doctoral researchers, academics and professional services staff head-on:
- Mobility Cluster, in collaboration with student community, developed Student Guide to support Una Europa students embarking on a semester abroad.
- In October 2022, the Una Europa Diversity Council published Engaging with Diversity in European Universities, a report consolidating key findings and recommendations on diversity across Una Europa universities.
- Pioneering joint programmes and courses means rethinking how Una Europa implements quality assurance as an alliance. Quality Assurance Cluster spearheaded a novel quality assurance approach for Una Europa joint programmes.
The Una Europa student community has become a catalytic force for innovation in alliance:
- Created by students for students, the Una Europa Student Congress enables student community to come together, build networks and work collaboratively to shape Una Europa’s vision for a European University of the Future. In October 2022, the Student Congress gathered at Uniwersytet Jagielloński and teamed up with Future UniLab to devise creative solutions to fundamental challenges in academic life.
- Challenge-based learning initiatives have provided students with a platform to collaborate and innovate; in 2022, Una.Together gathered students from across Europe to develop concepts that advance diversity, equity and inclusion on Una Europa campuses.
Learn about the Una Europa Project Team Approach
5. New ways to learn from each other
The Una Europa community is brimming with potential. Together, Una Europa has pursued new formats to enable this potential to flourish.
- Joint Innovative Formats (JIFs) for mobility are designed to be scalable and replicable by the Una Europa community and beyond. Una Europa developed an interactive tool that enables users to browse mobility models and navigate to ‘how-to’ manuals based on their needs.
- Una Europa Staff Weeks provide professional services staff with opportunities to enhance their specialist skill set, share best practice and grow their network. The Communications Staff Week held at the University of Edinburgh in September 2022 held seminars and workshops for the alliance’s communications specialists in areas such as intercultural communication and engaging policymakers.
- Live My Life is a joint job-shadowing programme that facilitates knowledge-sharing, mentoring and mobility among Una Europa’s professional services staff. Each round focuses on specialisms addressed during Staff Weeks. Live My Life call in June 2022 invited applications from professional services staff working in the areas of Erasmus KA2 cooperation projects, psychological counselling and academic advising, Open Educational Resources and support for PhD students.
- Una Europa aims to provide doctoral researchers with opportunities to build their network and profile as they establish their academic careers, exemplified by Speed Networking for PhDs event in June 2022.
Take a look at the opportunities for community
Conclusion: Looking to new horizons
Una Europa’s pilot phase has galvanised community and propelled us towards common vision of a European University of the Future, with significant milestones achieved along the way. Una Europa has launched truly European joint programmes and made tangible strides in fostering an ecosystem that places mobility, interdisciplinarity and innovation at its core. As Una Europa looks to the future, Una Europa will be guided by 2030 Strategy – a lodestar shaped with and for community. Evolving to meet the demands of a rapidly changing Europe, and world, will be at the core of this strategy: bolstering environmental sustainability, acting globally to find global solutions, and equipping the European Graduates of the Future to take on the challenges of tomorrow.
Source: Una Europa
