The snowfall blanketed Trollhattän in the days leading up to the STARS EU launch event, which hosted the Swedish city’s academic institution, University West, as if it were a blank canvas for the ideas that would eventually flow during the two-day STARS EU launch event. From 4-6 December, around 100 people from the nine partner universities worked together in person to launch the activities of the eight work packages into which the partnership activity in the European Commission-funded project has been divided.

Although there has been a lot of work before that date, 1 November was officially the start date for STARS EU as a newly recognised European University, and this launch event served as a general framework for establishing the first steps in the different areas of the project.

Of course, the intensive team-building sessions were complemented by a social programme that allowed for networking and also strengthening the links among the members of this alliance. And it seems that the objective was fully achieved, because at the closing session of the event, the most repeated words were “trust”, “good vibes”… and also “a lot of work”.

Welcome session

The Vice Chancellor of University West, Mats Jägstam, was the first speaker. He welcomed the guests from the other universities in the alliance and considered STARS EU a great possibility to be innovative and to compare and learn from other regions. He also considered it a “tool” to create good internationalisation at local level, and encouraged the attendees to take advantage of the good agenda of this conference and discuss “what to do and also what not to do”.

Anders Carlberg, Regional Development Strategist of the Västa Götaland region, gave a brief introduction of the importance of regional academic institutions, such as University West, for local development. He focused on two main aspects: the first was the regional smart specialisation strategies, highlighting areas such as sustainable industries, health and life sciences, food, bio-based materials and renewable energies, future mobility, hospitality and tourism and creative industries. The second priority he recalled was the development of competences, skills and lifelong learning.The Ingenium experience

In the third speech of the morning, Mikael Ejdebäck, Deputy Vice-Rector for Internationalisation at the University of Skövde, explained the challenges faced and the work carried out during the first year of the Ingenium European University, led by the University of Oviedo (Spain) and of which his institution is a member. It was approved after its third attempt and officially launched in January 2023, with the participation of ten universities, eleven languages and 170,000 students.

Ejdebäck explained that, after the inaugural event of their alliance last January, they started working on the creation of the IT infrastructure, such as the website and the data repository. A schedule of two daily meetings of ten days each has been established, and the teams responsible for each work package started working on uploading the first mandatory deliverables.

During his presentation, he addressed some of the challenges that have arisen during this first year of activities: differences in internal organisation and recruitment procedures; the debate on whether it is better to hire new staff or appoint existing staff; deciding on students for local representatives; and gaining local visibility and good communication. Other challenges ahead include managing academic differences, sustainable mobility, joint degrees and finding ways to fund the partnership activities after the first year of activities.

Antonela Giorgio, Project Adviser of the Education, Audio-visual, Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission connected from Brussels to explain her role to help the implementation of the alliance. He found really interesting to hear the previous speaker because he enabled her to hear not only the administrative problems, but the more practical ones. She emphasized the importance of having a good communication between the alliances with her agency and with other alliances as well.

STARS’ current situation

Finally, Rima Dijkstra, coordinator of STARS EU, gave a brief presentation of the whole four-year process that has led to the recognition, in July 2023, of the alliance as a European University in the open call of the European Commission. “Today we start a new chapter in our organisation. I am proud of the previous work because it has been the reason for our achievement”. The alliance was initially called Engaged and, after three attempts, on 1 November 2023 it started its journey as an official entity. At that point, STARS EU has became not only the alliance that it already was, but also a European project, which involves carrying out various tasks and meeting certain deadlines over the next four years.

Dijkstra reminded some of the future challenges faced by STARS EU: the development of a campus, both digital (which was addressed two weeks ago during the Staff Week at Bremen University of Applied Sciences) and physical, which “will take a lot of agreements, but it’s the future”; long time sustainability of the alliance; to present projects in calls such Erasmus o Interreg; and to develop cooperation structures, among others.

Work packages

After the words of welcome and protocol, there followed two long teamwork sessions in the different work packages of the project, held during the afternoon of Tuesday 5 and the morning of Wednesday 6 December in different rooms of the West University. The leaders of each package coordinated these sessions, which have served to detect what should be the first actions to be undertaken in each of them and, in some cases, to establish timetables for their fulfillment.

While it is true that most of the alliance’s activities are carried out online, these face-to-face meetings allow issues to be discussed more directly and progress to be made in establishing objectives. As such, the alliance envisages live meetings where possible, the next of which will be the alliance’s annual conference, which this time will be held on 21-22 March 2024 at the University of Franche-Comté at Besançon (France).

The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has organised the 2^nd Forum of European Universities Alliances, held on 14 and 15 September in Barcelona. The venue chosen was the former Fabra i Coats textile factory, an industrial heritage site that is now a space for creativity, which is in keeping with the spirit of these alliances. STARS EU was present at this important meeting attended by 430 higher education institutions from 35 countries (EU members plus Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey).

The project coordinator, Rima Dijkstra, from the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), attended on behalf of STARS EU, accompanied by Gunnar Peterson, from the West University (Sweden); Vera Ferro-Lebres, from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal); and José Sigut, from the University of La Laguna (Spain).

The first meeting of the alliances was organized during the French Presidency of the Union, in June 2022. The objective of this second forum has been to offer a space for dialogue and exchange of ideas to address the most important issues currently affecting the alliances.

Rima Dijkstra values in a high positive way this meeting in which 50 alliances gathered to listen new directions for European University Initiative provided by the European Commission and share the results achieved. “The forum was an open space for dialogue and exchange of ideas around the most important issues currently affecting alliances”, she explains . Among the many topics discussed were the legal status of alliances and the European Degree label, research and innovation activities of the alliances and how to bring the European Universities initiative closer to European society.  

“Its was very interesting to discuss,  learn and share with colleagues from other European Universities alliances, to compare STARS EU Alliance results and achievements with the results of long-term existing alliances funded under the EUI 1st and 2nd calls”, says Dijkstra. “After participating in the parallel sessions and discussions, we can conclude that STARS EU strategy and action plan are very much in-line with the EUI and, in many cases, our achievements and strategic directions are even ahead of other alliances”.

In addition to delegates from the universities themselves involved in the different alliances, these more than 400 participants also include representatives of the European Commission, state members, student associations, quality agencies from the various countries and other university associations.

To carry out this forum, there has been close collaboration with the alliances themselves and with the European Commission to determine the topics, the moderators and the people who participated in each session. Furthermore, once concluded, participation mechanisms have been planned so that the discussions extend beyond the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

During these two days of work, issues such as the “transformative potential and challenges for national governments and institutions” will be discussed with the presence of State Secretaries from Member States, where the commitment to improve the quality and competitiveness of the European universities, the recognition of diversity, university autonomy and the need to develop non-predefined activities and cooperation formulas.

The way to bring the “European Universities” initiative closer to European society has also been addressed; the strategy for the creation of a joint European degree label to facilitate higher education institutions involved in transnational cooperation in offering joint programs and obtaining joint degrees; or the social dimension of European universities and how they have to create a desired inclusive environment in higher education, which promotes equality and diversity and responds to the needs of local communities.

Opening

The II Forum was inaugurated by the acting Spanish Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, together with the Vice President for the Promotion of the European Lifestyle of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas; the head of the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Joaquim Nadal; and the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni.

Minister Joan Subirats presented the event emphasizing that the university alliances follow in the footsteps of one of the most efficient and successful proposals that the EU has had and that has contributed the most to European construction: the Erasmus program. “The Alliances aim to transform and strengthen the union of universities, the union of knowledge and talent and project it to the world”.

The vice president for the Promotion of the European Lifestyle of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, considers that these alliances represent a process of transformation of the European Higher Education system where a common space for university training “based on in the convergence of curricula, mobility, understanding and the European spirit.” Shinas also considered the Erasmus program “the jewel in the crown of European integration. It is, by far, the most successful story in building this mentality of coexistence, of diversity, of understanding among young Europeans.”

Project leader Rima Dijkstra explains and elaborates on what makes ENGAGED such a special and outstanding initiative and why it is so different from other initiatives. She states among other things: “Acquiring knowledge from across the whole of Europe enables us to add value within the region”. Read the entire interview about collaboration, building bridges and tapping into each other’s strengths here https://bit.ly/3aoFjtb