For some time now, since well before the emergence of Covid-19, universities and international organizations have been reflecting on how the internationalization of higher education should evolve. At the 2017 Gothenburg Summit, the European Council noted that the education landscape was rapidly changing and laid the groundwork for the creation of future ‘European Universities’.

Aware of the challenge, UPF sought to play an active role in these changes from the outset; hence, its firm and successful commitment to forming the EUTOPIA alliance with five other universities (Ljubljana, Gothenburg, Warwick, CY Paris and Vrije University Brussels). The alliance was launched in December 2019 with the aim of building a true shared space, a new higher education institution of a transnational nature within Europe.

UPF has decided to put internationalization at the centre of its strategy, going beyond student mobility to apply it to other teaching, research and knowledge-transfer activities as well.

In coordination with the EUTOPIA alliance, the university is also working on the design of a strategic internationalization plan with a ten-year horizon, intended to guide its transformation and its main international initiatives and projects. UPF has decided to put internationalization at the centre of its strategy, going beyond student mobility to apply it to other teaching, research and knowledge-transfer activities as well.

Universities are institutions that help coordinate the social and productive networks of their local communities. But UPF understands that its responsibility is even broader and that it is essential to have a global perspective to be relevant worldwide.

The coronavirus pandemic has simply added a new factor to be taken into account in the debate on higher education and internationalization. Previously, it had been closely linked to the physical movement of people, with the ensuing challenges for under-resourced groups and regions. Concepts such as inclusion or equal opportunity resonate strongly and will have to be incorporated into the standard vocabulary used in this university area.