The project reached its midterm stage reviewing its achievements and designing the strategy that will enable the seven universities of the alliance to expand their academic offer taught in English language.
EUNICE – European University for Customised Education gathered the Rectors and academics of the member universities, more than 70 people, on the occasion of its General Assembly. The transnational meeting, the first one held face-to-face due to the pandemic, was hosted by the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France from 30th May to 1st June in Valenciennes (France) and included parallel workshops to advance in the construction of joint study programmes under the EUNICE umbrella.
A ceremony attended by members of the regional civil society and industrial sector set the opening of the EUNICE General Assembly, headed by the President of the hosting university, Abdelhakim Artiba, as well as the Rectors of the partner universities of the alliance: Teofil Jesionowski, from Poznań University of Technology; Ángel Pazos, from the University of Cantabria; Philippe Dubois, from the University of Mons, Francesco Priolo, from the University of Catania, and Jari Kuusisto, from the University of Vaasa. Together with the Steering Committee, the Rectors reviewed the achievements of the alliance in its 18-month trajectory, debated the statutes for the alliance to become a legal entity and studied candidatures of new universities to join EUNICE.
Midterm analysis
EUNICE already offers to the 100,000 students registered in the member universities ECTS credit recognition when taking online subjects and hybrid short courses taught in English. This European University held its first EUNICE Weeks in 2021 in Poland; since then it has continued organising cultural activities around the European identity topic; and soon it will be launching a series of free language courses.
The General Assembly agenda included parallel workshops focused on the co-construction of joint multi-disciplinary study programmes that will allow the universities in the EUNICE alliance to expand their academic offering delivered in English. Likewise, two workshops on pedagogical engineering based on “virtual immersion” and “augmented reality” were held to promote the use of these technologies in what are known as “Excellence Programmes”.
In the opinion of the Rector of Poznań University of Technology, Teofil Jesionowski, “apart from expanding EUNICE’s academic offering, the added value of creating joint study programmes is in the strengthening of the cooperation links, which could lead to new initiatives that can be undertaken within the alliance in the future to come.”
“EUNICE is a great opportunity for students. They have the possibility to personalise their course in terms of choice of modules but also of learning techniques (virtual mobility, physical mobility, immersive courses, project-based learning, etc.). Students develop their European identity and acquire real capacities to adapt to the economic, cultural and multilingual world. Furthermore, the alliance’s approach of identifying society’s needs in terms of skills and using them as a basis for course provision greatly enhances their future employability,” concludes Abdelhakim Artiba, President of the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France.
About EUNICE
EUNICE, the European University for Customised Education, is designed to address social and economic challenges, both globally and locally. In 2020, the European Commission selected EUNICE on the second call for pilot projects of European Universities. Since then, the EUNICE alliance has advanced in its work areas such as international mobility, cooperation in research (Reunice), collaboration with industry and society and a shared course offering already launched this academic year 2021-2022.
The alliance is fed by seven universities’ intellectual and infrastructure input –Poznań University of Technology (Poland), Brandenburg University of Technology (Germany), University of Cantabria (Spain), University of Mons (Belgium), University of Catania (Italy), Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (France) and University of Vaasa (Finland)-, resulting in a solid network of interactions shared between educational institutions, industry and business partners, as well as other social, cultural, artistic and sports stakeholders.
Caption: Presidents and Rectors (from left to right) Abdelhakim Artiba (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France), Francesco Priolo (University of Catania), Jari Kuusisto (University of Vaasa), Ángel Pazos (University of Cantabria), Philippe Dubois (University of Mons) and Teofil Jesionowski (Poznań University of Technology).
