European Universities

Altogether, 114 European higher education institutions from 24 member states are represented in the new programme of the European Commission. Due to the initiative called 'European Universities', launched last year, the projects of 17 international alliances can be launched in the near future. As many as five alliances with a Hungarian member received funding, making Hungary the sixth most successful country in the EU.

Hungarian Higher Education Institutions in the European Universities Initiative

The long-term goal of the projects is to establish transnational European campuses, where the physical or virtual mobility of the students, teachers and staff members becomes everyday routine. Another goal is to go beyond the current forms of cooperation and harmonise the everyday operation of the universities, too, thus increasing the competitiveness of European higher education and R&D.

The second experimental call for proposals is expected to be out in October 2019, still with flexible conditions similar to last year's, as well as with an increased budget. In the 2020 round, about €120 m will be available, providing funding to 24 new projects. Then, the final version of the programme will be launched in 2021, already relying on the experiences of the first two years.

CHARM-EU Reconciling Humanity with the Planet

  • Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) (HU)
  • Trinity College Dubli
    n (IE)
  • Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
  • Université de Montpellier (FR)
  • Universiteit Utrecht (NL)

The CHARM-EU consortium will use a structure relying on research-based principles to train committed professionals who will seek unconventional, meaningful solutions to the global environmental and social challenges of the 21st century.

The institution will be available as widely as possible, regardless of any social and financial obstacles. Its main objective is to implement dynamic and customised learning and teaching activities and mobilities which provide space to students' independent learning strategies and also satisfy the professional needs of teachers, researchers and non-teaching or researching staff members. In accordance with the division of labour within the alliance, ELTE is responsible for the coordination of the two above-mentioned fields, mobility and inclusivity. 

The programme offer of the future new university will focus on such key areas as health sciences, digitalisation, sustainable development and inclusive society. The new institution also maintains close relations with the corporate sector, and is the affiliated partner of a number of multinational companies.

CIVICA The European University of Social Sciences

  • Central European University (HU)
  • European University Institute (IT/intergovernmental)
  • Handelshogskolan i Stockholm (SE)
  • Hertie School of Governance (DE)
  • Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (FR)
  • Școala Națională de Studii Politice și Administrative (RO)
  • Universitá Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (IT)

The inter-university campus of CIVICA will establish a connection between societies across cultural, linguistic and national boundaries in the fields of education, learning, research and innovation. Under the project, they will lay the foundations of an European Campus, where the students as well as the teachers can freely move from BA and MA through doctoral and post-doctoral training to adult education. The goal for European Campus is to have included at least half of the students and staff of the institutions by the end of the third year.

CEU will play a leading role in the field of research and social responsibility, focusing on four areas: the European Union, the crisis of our Earth, the status of democracy in the 21st century and the application of new technologies in social sciences, as well as the analysis of the social challenges they set. Headed by CEU, team works will be established in these subject matters, who will develop and recommend to the consortium and the European scientific community innovative research and educational methods and new research areas.

EDUC European Digital UniverCity

  • University of Pécs (HU)
  • Masarykova Univerzita (CZ)
  • Universitá Degli Studi di Cagliari (IT)
  • Universität Potsdam (DE)
  • Université de Rennes I (FR)
  • Université Paris Nanterre (FR)

The members of EDUC will be working to renew European higher education and to enhance participants' common European awareness. The partners will develop a new, modular and flexible governance system and harmonise and make interoperable their own educational structures. Another long-term objective is to rely on a new online campus, as well as on a unique combination of virtual and physical mobility, to offer mobility for most the alliance's 160,000 students and 20,000 teachers. The project also seeks to mutually integrate the languages and cultures of the five countries in each other's curricula, thus further enhancing a common identity.

The goal set for the end of the third year is to create and test a model which may set a new direction for common European higher education. PTE is responsible for coordinating the alliance's internationalisation work package, including a number of joint projects from harmonising the partners' African relations to organising the intercultural weeks.

EU4ART Alliance for Common Fine Arts Curriculum

  • Hungarian University of Fine Arts (HU, coordinator)
  • Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma (IT)
  • Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden (DE)
  • Latvijas Mākslas akadēmija (LV)

The partners involved in the EU4ART project seek to develop flexible training structures for students of painting, sculpture and graphic arts. These curricula will allow students to customise their studies, decide where and when to study and to work in an international environment already as students.

While harmonising the model curricula, EU4ART will develop an educational model based on common syllabi, implement joint exhibitions, and rely on a mentoring system to facilitate the mobility of students studying according to the new model curriculum; it will also develop an English dictionary of arts and provide language training. Mobility and language learning mutually enhance each other: language proficiency increases interest in foreign studies, whereas foreign studies improve language skills and help understanding of both other cultures and one's own identity. MKE will be responsible for leading the work team developing the common model curriculum.

EUGLOH - European University Alliance for Global Health

  • University of Szeged (HU)
  • Communauté d’Universites et Etablissements Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
  • Lunds Universitet (SE)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)

The partnership of the five leading European universities provides an opportunity to develop an innovative university structure within the EU, to offer mobility for students, PhD students, staff members and researchers, as well as to develop a common curriculum or modules. Besides obtaining an European diploma, the flexible curricula will allow students to customise their studies: they can decide, for example, in which partner institution and when to study.

The theme of the programme is global health, which all the units of the institutions involved in the alliance can join along the health value chain, both in the areas of education and the new research programmes to be launched in cooperation with the partner universities. By implementing its long-term strategy, the alliance promotes common European values and identity, increases the mobility of students and staff members and improves the quality of European higher education.

Last modified: 20-05-2020