Una Europa 2030

With many activities under way in the alliance and plenty of opportunities on the horizon, Una Europa 2030 is meant to identify needs, capture ideas and prioritize future action.

Where do we go from here? What do we stand for in the future? How do we want to study? What kind of research will be relevant? What will this alliance look like? Where can we, as Una Europa, be stronger together?

Until 16 July 2021, we used a digital platform where students, academics and staff from across the Una universities could share their ideas and discuss with their counterparts.

In total, we collected more than 130 ideas in six categories, attracting more than a thousand likes:

• Act global: We can only tackle today’s most pressing societal challenges if we work together with our partners across the globe - to promote excellence, nurture talent and support capacity-building. Whether it’s about reaching our joint climate goals or addressing current and future health emergencies, we are committed to openness to grow solutions for the future together.
• Connect with our communities: Una Europa is created by and for our community and society at large. Without the commitment and engagement of our communities – students, academics, professional staff and university leadership– and the support of our local partners we would not be able to trial exciting new initiatives, succeed in our ambitions goals and build a true European inter-university campus.
• Enhance our values: Una Europa is not a place, but a body of knowledge, ideas, and values that transcends borders, languages, cultures and time. We are committed to empowering our community in all its diversity to stand up for our common values of inclusion, gender equality, multilingualism and multiculturalism.
• Learn for Life: At Una Europa, we are educating the citizens of the future. We are committed to finding new, more flexible and creative ways of learning and are already implementing truly innovative joint formats across our eight universities. In order to transform education in a lasting way for the graduates of the future, we need to engage closely with our most important stakeholder group: our students.
• Conduct research for the future: As eight leading research-intensive universities in Europe, Una Europa is committed to fostering a truly supportive environment where our researchers – young and experienced – can thrive. We foster excellence by supporting increased research mobility and collaborative research across the globe and advocate for increased funding opportunities that will allow our academic communities to engage in ground-breaking research.
• Use your wildcard: Una Europa is an intellectual playground where critical minds can expand to their full aspiration. We are also resolutely independent and shape our own standards.

The ideas collected from our community formed the groundwork for discussions by our rectors, Board of Directors and Student Board in November 2021 at the Una Europa General Assembly, which took place at Freie Universität Berlin. At the General Assembly the building blocks that will form our 2030 strategy were identified and explored, including:

• our commitment to Sustainability,
• integrating values of diversity and inclusion,
• advocating for multilingualism,
• Una Europa as a creative hub,
• developing an effective governance framework for quality assurance,
• constructing a transformational Research & Innovation strategy,
• creating a process of joint course development and pooling resources,
• pushing for internationalisation through collaboration with Africa,
• supporting local public engagement and collaboration with local communities,
• offering skills training for students and early stage researchers,
• and enhancing our sense of community.

At the General Assembly we also received highly constructive, thought-provoking feedback from our external advisors:

• Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Former Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
• Jes Broeng, High-tech Entrepreneur, Professor and Director of DTU Entrepreneurship, Technical University of Denmark
• Felix Dapare Dakora, President of the African Academy of Sciences
• Antonio Loprieno, President of Jacobs University Bremen and Former Rector of Basel University and Chair of Swiss Rectors’ Conference
• Carel Stolker, Former Rector of Universiteit Leiden
• Milena Žic Fuchs, Professor of Linguistics, University of Zagreb and Member of Scientific Council of European Research Council
• Riikka Joukio, Executive Vice-President Corporate Responsibility and Public Affairs, Kesko

We are now moving into the second phase of the process at management level. Thought will be turned into action as we put together a joint strategy for Una Europa in 2030, including concrete recommendations on what we must do as an alliance to secure our vision for the future. The new strategy will be ready for action by June 2022, when it will be presented to the General Assembly for formal approval.

In the meantime, we will keep you updated on current progress on this page and on our social media channels:

• Twitter #UnaEuropa2030
• LinkedIn #UnaEuropa2030

A lot has been going on in the busy universe of Una Europa over the last months and even more is in the pipeline. Our Joint Doctorate in Cultural Heritage is currently recruiting for its first cohort, starting in 2022, and our Joint Bachelor's in European Studies recently welcomed representatives from the National Accreditation Agency for Flanders and the Netherlands to KU Leuven as part of the accreditation process for our programme.

We also have a Podcast Series showcasing key building blocks of our University of the Future. Listen to the latest episode here or find the full series on Spotify.