The European Commission opens the door to 24 new alliances to join the European Education Area.
The European Commission opens the door to 24 new alliances to join the European Education Area.
These universities will join the first 17 alliances of higher education institutions, such EUTOPIA, selected already in 2019. EUTOPIA is formed by an ambitious alliance of six like-minded European universities: Vrije Universitat Brussels (Belgium), CY Cergy Paris Université (France), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) and the University of Warwick (United Kingdom).
With the aim to create transnational campuses, more than half of these new European educational alliances have a Spanish partner. The EUTOPIA alliance, of which the Universitat Pompeu Fabra is part of, won a position in the first call held last year.
“The Commission is today strongly responding to the call of students for more freedom to study across Europe, from teachers and researchers to better pool knowledge, and from higher education institutions to pool resources. With 41 European Universities, involving 280 institutions and backed up by € 287 million from the EU budget, the European Education Area becomes a tangible reality for many”. states Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President for Promoting the European Way of Life.
Like EUTOPIA, the objective is that universities work together to pool their knowledge, platforms, resources and tools at the service of global campuses. In this way, they will develop joint, global and flexible study plans going beyond the traditional university borders.
The paradigm of higher education is adapting to the new times, allowing students to design their education, choosing from a variety of centers and disciplines on the continent and obtaining a European degree.
In total, for these 41 European Universities, is available a budget of up to €287 million. Each alliance receives up to €5 million from the Erasmus+ programme and up to €2 million from the Horizon 2020 programme for three years to start implementing their plans and pave the way for other higher education institutions across the EU to follow
In this way, Brussels has reserved a total of € 287 million. Between 2020 and 2027 the Union will invest in Erasmus + 30,000 million, double of what it is investing now.
Another example of the need and importance of creating a new higher education model based, as EUTOPIA, on inclusion, coherence, quality, digitalisation and multidisciplinarity.