challenge
yourself and
innovate everyday

Engaging with society, involving stakeholders in curricula (re)design and challenge-based learning (CBL), whilst ensuring excellence of the educational offer, is at the core of the ECIU University. The challenge-based approach allows participants to bring together different competences in innovative training and research, and to scale it up to a European level for the benefit of learners and stakeholders from any background. The experience, gained while creating the ECIU University, has the ambition to influence all levels of its members across Europe, offering added value to an extended group of students, academics and staff, business and societal stakeholders.

Ways to Participate

Contact your local ambassador to learn more about it.
CO-CREATE THE NEW EDUCATIONAL PATHWAYS
Adopt the challenge-based approach and create innovative educational models together with society and industry. Develop new educational pathways that are flexible in content, duration and location to include all types of learners.
Engage in the challenges
PARTICIPATE IN CHALLENGES
Work on challenges with learners and stakeholders.
Learn more about the challenges
Solve Challenges Typography

Why participate?

BE PART OF THE FUTURE

Develop novel educational programmes and curricula, based on the challenge-based learning and the creation or adaptation of micro-modules, relevant for challenges and tailored to the needs of learners.
Contact your local ambassador to learn more about it.

BE THE PART OF THE CHANGE

Participation at the ECIU University provides an opportunity to find solutions for the most relevant of today’s societal and economic problems.  

In addition, joining the ECIU University gives you an opportunity to co-create one of the first European Universities paving a new way for education on a European scale. 
Engage in solving the challenges

opportunities

Challenges

About challenge-based learning

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is an educational framework that centres around solving challenges in teams that include relevant participants of the challenge. CBL profits from internal motivation and creates opportunities for finding new solutions to real-life problems. 

Learners are in charge of their learning process and it allows teachers and other stakeholders to contribute to lifelong learning. The approach makes a difference and proposes a deep, engaging, meaningful and purposeful way of acquiring and developing the knowledge and skills needed for the future.The approach follows a specific structure, which consists of three main steps: engage, investigate and act. (Nichols, Mark H., Cator, Karen (2008), Challenge-based learning White Paper. Cupertino, California: Apple, Inc.). 

The challenge has to motivate students, here begins the engagement part. When working on the ‘Big Idea’, the engagement is the basis for a satisfying process. All the participants, teachers, students and external partners make sure that they agree on the final question to work on. 

Investigation makes sure they all are ‘on the same page’ and contribute with their knowledge and skills concerning the ‘Big Idea’. 

Action is important because partners can use gained and shared knowledge to actually design and prototype new solutions. The implementation of the prototype and the evaluation is crucial. A final presentation in public makes sure a difference is made. The learning process is transparent for all members of the community.
Explore the challenges
Graphic explaining challenge based learning

Staff Mobility for support staff

You are working in HR, Communications, Finances, International Office and you search for a new experience in a different environment, but also work that’s similar to what you do at your own university? The ECIU has adopted a Staff Mobility Programme which aims at increasing the mobility among administrative members of staff. The programme provides opportunities for support staff to spend time at other ECIU institutions through a programme tailor-made to individual staff member’s development needs.
Learn more

ResearchEr Mobility Fund

The ECIU University is committed to ensuring that its researchers are connected across all member institutions.
A researcher at any member institution of the ECIU University may apply a grant for travels and associated costs to visit researchers at other member institutions to establish and extend scientific collaboration.
Learn more

ColLab: Collaborative Platform for Teaching

The objective of the ColLab project is to provide educators in Higher Education with an educational resource center and a space where they can exchange knowledge, experiences and instructional technologies with their peers in various European countries, in order to become better prepared to face the evolving teaching and learning environment in that sector. With ColLab, we will create communities of pedagogical practice involving educators, researchers, students and managers who, with the help of the ColLab space and dedicated moderators, will become increasingly engaged, by sharing news, ideas, resources and case studies.
Learn more

Team Awards

The ​ECIU Team Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning aims to recognise the role that teams of people play within and/or across universities in successfully developing and implementing educational innovations. In this respect the Award differs from many existing awards, which recognise the efforts of individual teachers. The Award is open to all staff in member institutions but only one application per institution can be submitted each year. The intention of the Award is to promote, celebrate and showcase how the ECIU supports sustainable and transformative innovations in teaching and learning, especially in terms of challenging conventional thinking.
Learn more

The Leadership Development Programme

Since 2004, ECIU offers a comprehensive leadership programme to potential academic and administrative leaders of its member universities. They value this programme highly. Working together in small but highly diverse international teams not only inspires the participants but also provides them with a clear reflection of their own performance in their organization.  

During the ECIU Leadership Development Programme, participants work on strategic cases for three host universities related to the offering of new and joint educational pathways, and on institutional challenges related to the creation of a European university. Since its launch in 2004, more than 300 employees have participated in the Leadership Development Programme (LDP).
Learn more

Network for ECIU Teacher Education communities

The aim of the Network for ECIU Teacher Education communities is to:
  • Contribute to SDG#4 Quality Education
  • Strengthen the collaboration and mobility between Teacher Education providers in the ECIU
  • Investigate and emphasize innovation with the public sector
  • Inform policy development on Teacher Education in Europe
Learn more

Our Member universities

Explore All