From 16 to 20 January 2019, the Ciutadella campus will play host to training activities in the framework of the Europaeum Scholars Programme, a doctoral programme promoted by the Europaeum association, which comprises fifteen prestigious European universities, including UPF.

The training activities to take place in Barcelona, relating to the contents of the fifth module of the doctoral programme (of the total of eight spanning 2018-2020), include seminars, lectures and workshops by various experts, presentations and debates, as well as a guided tour of the Parliament of Catalonia.

Today, 16 January, various seminars have begun in small groups, corresponding to the doctorands related to the “E-Democracy” and “You and EU” projects. These seminars will be combined over the following days with plenary sessions, attended by all the students who play an active role in them.

Some thirty doctoral students are taking part in the programme including three students from the doctoral programmes in Law and History at UPF. 

The Europaeum Scholars Programme comprises some thirty doctoral students from the various Europaeum  partner universities, including students from the doctoral programmes at UPF Gerard Llorens De Cesaris (History), Cristina Güerri-Fernández (Law-specializing in Criminology), and Mladen Grgic (Law).

The theory and the practice of formulating policy; Euroscepticism; political asylum in Europe; Barcelona, a city of refugees; working with women affected by criminal gangs; energy poverty and civil society; democratic challenges of the twenty-first century; education in the European political environment; and ethical dilemmas in leadership are just some of the variety of topics to be discussed at UPF, all related to the cultural, political and social challenges Europe currently faces.

A programme of eight modules that seeks to train new leaders committed to Europe

The Europaeum doctoral programme, which includes four modules per year (three to five days each) began on 2 January 2018 at the University of Oxford; the following modules were carried out in Brussels, at the Graduate Institute of Genoa and at the University of Leiden. In 2019, after passing through Barcelona, the three remaining modules will consist of visits to several European institutions, sessions at the Charles University in Prague, ending in Oxford, with the presentation of projects and the final evaluation.

The participants selected to attend this multidisciplinary programme are attending the first or second year of their PhD in the fields of the humanities and the social sciences related to European studies. Over two years, they will work on an individual project that is directly relevant to the political, cultural, economic and social aspects of Europe, with particular emphasis on the moral and ethical considerations involved in politics.

According to Europaeum, the programme seeks to train a new generation of leaders, thinkers and researchers who think for themselves but not only with themselves, and have the ability and desire to improve the future of Europe. It focuses on four areas of crucial importance for the future of Europe: identity, inclusion, sustainability and growth and development in the broadest sense.