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NETWORKING FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FUTURE St. Pölten UAS is Austria’s First University of Applied Sciences to Head a European University. B Y
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“Places for pedagogical innovation and excellent research“, – that is how French President Emma nuel Macron described the quality of European Universities. The European Commission has been promoting networking between European universities since 2019, aiming to strengthen the standing of the entire European Higher Education Area in international competition. The programme is designed to enable European Universities to build the university of the future while enhancing their European identity.
Limburg in Belgium and the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences in Latvia, proposed a concept dubbed “E³UDRES² − the Engaged and Entre preneurial European University as Driver for European Smart and Sustainable Regions”. The concept was selected by international experts from the EU Commission out of a total of 62 submissions. Within the next three years, E³UDRES² will be awarded around five million euros, approx. 1.1 million euros of which will go to the St. Pölten UAS.
“Participating in this excellence programme of the European Commission represents a great opportunity for the St. Pölten UAS and for Austria as a location for higher education and strengthens our position as an innovative university of applied sciences with close ties to society and the economy. I am particularly honoured by the trust placed in the St. Pölten UAS to be the first Austrian university of applied sciences to head a European University”, says Hannes Raffaseder, Member of the St. Pölten UAS’ Executive Board and designated Head of the new European University.“At the same time, it is a mission that brings great responsi bility and creates an incentive to consistently pursue our path”, says Raffaseder.
The European University Initiative was launched in 2017 as part of the Erasmus+ Programme – the EU Programme for Education, Youth and Sport. The initiative aims to promote bottom-up networks of universities to make European higher educational institutions more internationally competitive. www.eudres.eu
REGIONAL – EUROPEAN Next to the Montanuniversität Leoben, the St. Pölten UAS is among the first Austrian universities to coordinate one of currently 41 European Universities. The St. Pölten UAS, in partnership with the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal in Portugal, the Polytechnical Univer sity Timisoara in Romania, the Szent Istvan University Gödöllö in Hungary, the UC Leuven
