Artevelde University of Applied Sciences visits UVic-UCC as part of the European Universities initiative

This week the UVic-UCC has played host to a delegation from the management team of the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) in Belgium, led by its rector. The delegation from the Artevelde had the opportunity to hold meetings with their counterparts from UVic-UCC, and to visit the Vic Campus facilities and the city.

This visit is part of a European Campus project within the Erasmus+ European Universities initiative, within which the UVic-UCC is working with universities from six different countries in a project by the University of Artevelde

A transnational alliance

The European Universities are transnational alliances of higher education institutions from across the EU that come together in order to benefit students, teachers and society. Forty-one partnerships have been established since the first call for the European Universities initiative, containing around 280 higher education institutions from all the member states of other countries participating in the ERASMUS+ Programme. They receive financial support from the Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe programmes, and enhance the quality, inclusion, digitalisation and appeal of European higher education. This initiative helps universities to over beyond the existing models of cooperation in higher education. European Universities must act as models of good practice in order to gradually increase the quality, international competitiveness and appeal of European higher education.

The project which UVic-UCC is involved in is called "UP University - Shaping the New World of Work, Study & Living", and is scheduled to conclude at the end of July. Regardless of the outcome of the project's application for funding, the visit by the UAUAS delegation reinforced the commitment to continue working towards establishing a close relationship of collaboration for the internationalization of UVic-UCC and the other partners in the alliance.

The universities taking part in the project are: Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (Gant, Belgium), HAN University of Applied Sciences (Arnhem/Nijmegen, the Netherlands), IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems (Krems-an-der-Donau, Austria), Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oulu, Finland), FH Münster University of Applied Sciences (Münster, Germany), University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (Vic, Spain), and Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau (Bacau, Romania). United by their dedication to an applied approach to research and higher education, the participants in UP-University complement each other in their educational programmes and specialist fields. These seven regional universities aim to become European Universities by establishing a strong interregional framework which increases regional opportunities for innovation and growth, thereby becoming an invaluable asset for spreading economic strength and individual well-being more evenly throughout Europe as a whole.

This visit highlighted the two institutions' interest in the continued progress of each region, but working together with an eye on Europe. Continuing in the same dynamic, the seven universities will meet at the AUAS headquarters in Ghent in the near future in order to continue finding synergies, reinforcing ties and consolidating shared lines of work.