Looking back at a successful STARS EU session at Hanze UAS

The STARS EU team of Hanze University of Applied Sciences held an informative session on Thursday the 9^th of March 2023 for Hanze staff. More information about STARS EU developments was shared during the interactive session. Colleagues and two partners from University of La Laguna, Spain and Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal shared their experiences and regional challenges. The meeting was well attended and initial reactions afterwards were very positive.

After the welcome address by Paul Ganzeboom, Dean of Internationalisation, Dick Pouwels, Chairman of the Executive Board, explained more about the importance of sustainable international collaboration. Rima Dijkstra, STARS EU programme manager, explained the different cooperation structures and made an open appeal to all attendees to join STARS EU. Three Hanze colleagues shared their experiences: Diederich Bakker, professor in International Business, Madelon van Oostrom, senior researcher and Albert Haan, project manager, all expressed what working together in STARS EU has brought them. Also two partners in the alliance presented their universities and explained their regional challenges. These challenges were recognisable and in some ways similar to the challenges faced in the Northern Netherlands.

Joining STARS EU

There are several ways to join STARS EU. From an educational perspective, collaboration can take place through the Curriculum Lab. Here, development of new Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) is one of the main focus areas.  From all the international partners, two or three students are involved in the Student Board of STARS EU. For researchers, there are opportunities to collaborate through Challenge Lab and initiate and/or participate in joined projects. Thematic Interest Groups (TIGs) are the developing force in all above-mentioned initiatives. The TIGs are formed around seven themes: Arts & Creative Industries, Digital Transformation, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Energy Transition, Healthy Ageing, Circular Economy and Living Spaces. Finally, partners collaborate intensively in the Regional Transition Accelerator which acts as an agent to enhance development of partner regions and connect them.

Follow-up meeting

STARS EU meetings take place regularly within Hanze UAS. The next interactive session is scheduled on Monday the 15th of May from 12:00 to 13:00 hrs. For more information about this session or engage with the organisation about a possible connection to STARS EU, please send an e-mail to starseu@org.hanze.nl.

STARS EU

To prepare future generations for increasingly automated, digitised and changeable labour markets, both educational and research models need to change. These changes are jointly addressed by the STARS EU partners. They look for synergies and pool their complementary knowledge, experience and innovative strength to give a positive boost to regional economies. For more information, visit the STARS EU website: www.starseu.org.

The name STARS EU stands for the STrategic Alliance for Regional Transition. Nine higher education institutions are part of this European University: Hanze University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands), University West (Sweden), Bremen University of Applied Sciences (Germany), University of La Laguna (Spain), Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic), Cracow University of Technology (Poland), University of Franche-Comté (France) and Aleksandër Moisiu University of Durrës (Albania).