The ECIU University will change the way of offering education from being degree-based to being challenge-based. Our learners and researchers will contribute to solving climate crises and other urgent challenges that Europe will face. The ECIU University will constitute be a real European university where learners, teachers and researchers cooperate with cities and regions, businesses, and citizens to solve real-life challenges in a unique and, flexible way. Furthermore, the challenges will focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities. This means learners at ECIU University will be tackling real and important problems in society and help shape a better world.
We are the largest European University alliance with 12 members and extensive European coverage. Today, we see the European Universities initiative as a historical opportunity. For ECIU, building a European University is a fundamental change and a long-term process, not a project.
Already in 2017, the ECIU Board members, staff and students of the ECIU Universities started to discuss the future of innovative Universities in Europe. Within the ECIU network, first ideas on a joint and future-proof European university were developed. In September 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed the idea of the creation of networks of European universities as “drivers of educational innovation and the quest for excellence”. The EU education and mobility programme Erasmus+ became the central programme for the implementation of the initiative.
ECIU was involved in the process of developing the call by participating in stakeholder consultations and published a position paper, and, later on, the call for proposals for the first pilot in October 2018 to which the ECIU network with all its partners submitted the ECIU University project. In June 2019, it was announced that ECIU got the three-year funding to pioneer with the ECIU University.
The following topics are covered and assured in this WP:
WP 1 Lead
Project Manager
Mari Andela
University of Twente
m.andela@utwente.nl
WP 2 Lead
Greg Hughes
Dublin City University
greg.hughes@dcu.ie
WP 3 Lead
Andrea Brose
Hamburg University of Technology
a.brose@tuhh.de
WP 4 Lead
Henri Pirkkalainen
Tampere University
henri.pirkkalainen@tuni.fi
WP 5 Lead
Jan Axelsson
Linköping University
jan.axelsson@liu.se
WP 6 Lead
Artur Silva
Aveiro University
artur.silva@ua.pt
WP 7 Lead
Trym Holbek
University of Stavanger
trym.holbek@uis.no
WP 8 Lead
Heli Harrikari
Tampere University
heli.harrikari@tuni.fi
WP 9 Lead
Giedrė Šadeikaitė
Kaunas University of Technology
giedre.sadeikaite@ktu.lt