Faces of our CommUNAty | Special edition: 5 years, 5 moments with Secretary-General Emily Palmer

Key figures from across Europe’s higher education community, including Una Europa partners, gathered at Università di Bologna to celebrate 20 years of the Bologna Declaration. The Declaration sets out the ambitious vision for a European Higher Education Area in which students and graduates can move freely between countries, with qualifications earned in one country recognised in others across the EU and beyond. The presence of all our partner universities highlighted to me how much each partner cares about taking a leading role in the European Higher Education Area, beyond their individual institutions.

Against this backdrop, we received the news that our 1Europe pilot project had been selected by the European Commission as one of the first to be funded under the European Universities initiative – a new vehicle to transform the future of higher education and make the European Higher Education Area a reality! The excitement was contagious and it was so much fun to have the chance to celebrate together as a community over dinner and drinks.

I returned to Brussels from Bologna so excited, inspired and full of Una Europa energy that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. I even missed my metro stop to get home because of all the excitement of ambition racing around in my mind!

In the depths of winter we held our 1Europe kick-off event – the spark that lit our flagship pilot project, and the first time we came together as one united Una Europa community. Looking at all the new faces around me, I was most struck by the drive to collaborate in this new framework and the willingness to embrace the new and the experimental, from academics to professional services staff, from students to senior leadership.

This was also the moment we discovered and committed to invest in Una Europa’s branding and visual identity; rooted in our shared values, driven forward by our partner universities, unified by a shared personality that is enthusiastic, solid, reliable, clear, open and bold. All encapsulating the spirit of the alliance!

Reflecting the atmosphere of innovation and experimentation, the kick-off event welcomed any individual across our community and wider network of higher education stakeholders to step into centre stage, adding their voice to the first chapter in our shared Una Europa story and the European Universities initiative more broadly. The diversity of voices was really energising, but what was truly inspiring was the willingness – the enthusiasm – to embrace something new.

After 18 months of online collaboration due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Una Europa community came together once again in late 2021, this time hosted by our German partner Freie Universität Berlin. Despite the fact that only 50 colleagues were allowed to participate in person, spirits were high and the energy was electric.

‘Ambition’ was the word of the moment. With our 1Europe project in full swing and our pilot research and innovation project, Una.Resin, well underway, we were keen to think beyond individual projects, beyond the European Commission’s mandate for European Universities alliances, and dream about what we could achieve together if we really pushed ourselves to look beyond the boundaries of what is possible today. We were also considering inviting new partners into our community, which was really invigorating and helped push us to envision beyond the here and now.

One particular moment that epitomised the feeling of ambition and motivation came from Sari Lindblom, Rector of Helsingin yliopisto/Helsingfors universitet. While discussing the alliance’s vision and strategy for 2030, Sari exclaimed, ‘We have to remain ambitious in our joint activities – reach high and stay high!’ Her words articulated my feelings perfectly. In that moment, I felt our community was so united in its ambitions, dreaming beyond the vision of the European Universities initiative together.

A particular highlight in pushing me out of my comfort zone came at the Una Europa General Assembly hosted by Helsingin yliopisto in June 2022, when we welcomed senior representatives from universities in Africa to jointly explore avenues for collaboration with our alliance. This was a new space for me, as my career up to this point had been solely focused on the European higher education landscape, and it was so exciting to have the opportunity to broaden my perspective and be inspired by new ideas and voices.

From this gathering grew the Una Europa–Africa partnership, our collaboration with eight African institutions to achieve a common vision of building a vibrant community of researchers across Europe and Africa to address global challenges, together.

A lasting memory for me from our time together in Helsinki was meeting and discussing shared challenges with Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, the first woman Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana. Professor Amfo is such an inspiration for all women who are or aspire to be senior leaders, myself included, and I am looking forward to continuing to work with her as she joins Una Europa’s External Advisory Board.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my role as Secretary-General has been to nurture the growth of our central Una Europa team based in Brussels. When I started with the alliance, the Brussels-based office consisted of only me; now, our team includes eight permanent staff members, as well as four interns per year.

It has been very rewarding for me to watch the team and also individual members grow, developing new confidence and skills as they connect into the alliance more and more. The bonds between our team and colleagues in our partner universities have also grown over time, with counterparts coming together to strengthen the alliance in areas including communications, community engagement, policy, funding, and governance.

When I think of the positive growth of our Brussels team, I think of the team-building day we spent together in May 2023. Travelling into the Belgian countryside, we spent the day engaging in equine-assisted learning (thanks to our horse enthusiast Operations Officer Zoë de Paepe for the inspiration!)

Horses are extremely sensitive to emotions and energy, particularly between members of a group, so our new equine colleague taught us a lot about how we interact with one another and how to show leadership and collaboration. I learned that my leadership style aligns with ‘female’ leadership in the context of how horses behave – positioned at the back of a group, bringing energy to motivate others and push them forward. This really resonated with me, as I always strive to motivate and empower others, and I see the impact of this in how our Brussels team has flourished.

It has been a great joy to serve the Una Europa community over the last five years – these moments represent just a snapshot of all the laughs and smiles, ideas and achievements we have shared since 2019. And this is just the beginning! Let’s keep the ambition high, keep building our community and see what memories we can make in the next five years (and beyond!).

Una Europa is excited to be celebrating five years of our alliance, together with our community. Follow #5432Una to be part of the festivities over the course of this academic year.