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Coimbra Group members strongly represented in the European Universities initiative

10 July 2020

The European Commission has revealed the 24 new European Universities that will join the first cohort of 17 alliances launched in 2019. This second call had 165 higher education institutions from 26 countries selected. The Coimbra Group sees 16 more of its members integrating these pioneer consortia, to add up to the previous 16 selected under the first pilot call.

With 32 out of our 41 members involved directly in this initiative, we are proud to count now almost 80% of Coimbra Group member institutions participating in European Universities alliances. The Coimbra Group is an associated partner to EC2U and CIRCLE U, in addition to existing CHARM-EU and Una Europa alliances.

Since the start in 2018, the Coimbra Group has been actively involved in the co-design process of the European Universities initiative with the European Commission and has made the strong political choice to provide support to all Coimbra Group Universities during the first and second calls of the pilot phase. We will continue playing the role of a multiplier of the innovations emerging through this initiative, in close cooperation with the 8 alliances involving Coimbra Group members: 4EU+, ARQUS, CHARM-EU, Circle U., EC2U, ENLIGHT, EUniWell and Una Europa.

The Chair of the Coimbra Group Executive Board, Prof Ludovic Thilly, declared to be “delighted to see that almost all Coimbra Group universities are now part of this unprecedented initiative of Alliances. As a network, we will make sure to involve all our members and beyond”. The Coimbra Group wishes to remain the platform facilitating the exchanges of experiences and learning between member universities that it has always been since 1985, also in this field.

The Coimbra Group monthly newsletter includes a permanent section on European Universities, where we inform about policy developments and disseminate relevant information on the alliances involving our members. Recently the Coimbra Group held an open session on the European Universities Alliances where the discussions focused on the sustainability of the Initiative at European level after 2023, on the European degree and on the Covid-19 impact on the alliances’ activities. The outcomes & key takeaways from this webinar are available on this dedicated webpage.

European Universities are transnational alliances of higher education institutions from across the EU that come together to establish European inter-university campuses for the benefit of students, teachers and society. With financial support from both the Erasmus+ and Horizon 2020 programmes (up to €287 million), their goal is to enhance the quality, inclusion, digitalisation and attractiveness of European higher education through in-depth and systemic cooperation between higher education institutions. It is a flagship initiative of the European Education Area, that will also contribute to shape the vision of Universities of the future.