At the end of June, EULiST coordinators met for the first time in person at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. EULiST (European Universities Linking Society & Technology) is an alliance of nine European universities - including Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) - with a primary focus in technological disciplines as well as the humanities and social sciences; the aim is to improve coordination and collaboration between the higher education institutions in teaching and learning, mobility, and research.
Representatives from the nine EULiST universities travelled from all over Europe to attend the event, hosted by Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), exploring cooperation in higher education as well as further activities to give shape to the alliance. In addition to LUH and URJC, this included National Technical University of Athens, Brno University of Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, University of L''Aquila, TU Wien, Jönköping University and Lappeenranta University of Technology.
Since the project was established during the pandemic, developments took place entirely remotely; thus this was the first face-to-face meeting. María Luisa Humanes Humanes, Vice President for International Relations at URJC, emphasised that it was an honour to host the event: "This is an expression of our commitment to the EULiST project, which coincides with the celebration of 25 years of URJC".
At the meeting, coordinators evaluated future measures to strengthen the academic relationship between the universities, as well the establishment of Europe-wide-accredited joint degrees, courses and micro certificates for students of EULiST universities. Moreover, foundations with respect to coordination and exchange of researchers, administrative staff and members of support staff were discussed with the aim of improving the experiences and knowledge of all members of the community. The session concluded with a discourse on the subject of good practice with regard to providing support to Ukrainian students and researchers.
Pablo Salvadores, Director of the Area of Projects and International Relations and local EULiST Coordinator at URJC, underlines the positive progress of the initiative, emphasising the importance of the European higher education initiative: "It is the future but also the here and now of education. It is the European Union''s greatest commitment to higher education in recent years, both financially and in terms of structure."
Further such events are planned for the near future. In October, the EULiST presidents'' board will meet - hosted once again by URJC - and EULiST coordinators will meet again in September in accompaniment to attending the conference of the European Association for International Education, which will take place in Barcelona.
