A new cooperation

Report

EUTOPIA a new cooperation

Text: Eva Lundgren Illustration: Maria Källström

The European Universities Initiative – this is the name of the European Commission’s investment in networks between different universities in Europe that will address the many challenges of the future. The EUTOPIA network that the University of Gothenburg is part of was one of the first to receive funding. – The European Universities Initiative is the model for the development of higher education that the EU will invest in in the future. That is why it is important to participate from the beginning, explains Pro Vice-Chancellor Mattias Goksör.

IT WAS THE FRENCH PRESIDENT, Emmanuel Macron, who three years ago proposed the idea of a European Universities initiative where universities collaborate across national borders. Today, there are 41 networks consisting of a total of approximately 280 European universities, of which 11 are Swedish. – Since the University of Gothenburg has been involved from the beginning, we have a tremendous opportunity to influence the project, says Mattias Goksör, who is responsible for the management of EUTOPIA on behalf of the University of Gothenburg. Our priorities are about sustainability, digitalisation and student influence. For us, it is obvious that students should be able to influence their education, but this is not the case everywhere.

The goal of EUTOPIA is the free movement of students and staff. But that is thirty years down the road. At the moment, it is a three-year pilot project. – Among other things, the participating universities will exchange experiences and learn from each other, explains Coordinator Karin Jonson. The University of Gothenburg’s Research Leader Initiative, which supports young research leaders, is an example of an initiative from the University of Gothenburg, and we can also be inspired by the University of Warwick’s virtual student conferences, for example. The idea is also to take advantage of the contacts the various universities have established with wider society. In the case of the University of Gothenburg these include the Business Region Gothenburg, the Västra Götaland region and Lindholmen Science Park.

The network will also map infrastructure and their areas of strength, says Karin Jonson. – But we must also examine the barriers to collaboration that currently exist, for example when it comes to legislation. For example, according to the Higher Education Ordinance we cannot accept credits from a foreign university in a Swedish degree. However, the Commission has made it clear that we must be visionary in our approach and that it is not wrong to fail.

Even though laws and regulations can create problems, it is possible to implement many collaborations now, Mattias Goksör points out. – We have already started a number of “learning units” with collaboration at the course level. We could also create joint theoretical courses for the students, which do not award points. And by opening up lectures and workshops, students from the other universities can get an idea of what it is like to study in Sweden.

THE 5 MILLION EURO that each European university is financed with is no more than stimulus money, says Mattias Goksör. – The cost of the collaboration is, of course, much higher. But much of what we have to do now, such as digitalising large parts of our educational programmes, still needs to be carried out. We now have the opportunity to develop together with other universities in Europe.

Sweden has so far been quite hesitant about the European Universities Initiative, says Mattias Goksör. – What we do not want to see are differences in the universities’ ability to participate, where some universities receive support from their governments while others do not. That would be a cause for considerable concern.

Facts

EUTOPIA was one of the first of the 41 European universities funded by the European Commission with EUR 5 million each. EUTOPIA’s long-term goal is to offer free movement for students and staff by 2050. The ongoing collaboration though, is about a three-year trial operation, organized in seven work packages with a focus on project management,

education, research, regional collaboration, broadened recruitment, internationalization and sustainability. GU is responsible for the research package and has co-responsibility for the education package, where Vrije Universiteit Brussels has the main responsibility. EUTOPIA includes: University of Gothenburg, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, CY Cergy Paris Université, University Pompeu Fabra- Barcelona, Univerza v Ljubljana and the University of Warwick. The network consists of 165,000 students and 30,000 employees and has research centers in 760 areas. On November 23–27, the University of Warwick will hold this autumn’s EUTOPIA Week. In the spring, it is time for GU to be responsible for EUTOPIA Week.