From 6 to 9 September, the UAB is host to the latest meeting of the ECIU Leadership Development Programme, which unites university administration members from centres all over Europe. The European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), a leading network in higher education committed to innovation in both learning and knowledge transfer, organises these meetings with the aim of offering administrative and academic staff members the opportunity to share their experiences in university management. Participating centres include the Southern Federal University (Russia), University of Aveiro (Portugal), University of Linköping (Sweden), University of Stavanger (Norway), University of Aalborg (Denmark), Dublin City University (Ireland) and the University of Twente (the Netherlands), as well as the UAB. Throughout the meeting, different aspects on university management leadership will be discussed and representatives of each centre will explain the specific characteristics and challenges faced by their home universities, with the aim of sharing experiences. In addition, the participants will choose the winner of the ECIU LDP Academic Leadership Award, a symbolic honour for an outstanding academic leader.
The meeting was inaugurated on 6 September by Màrius Martínez, Vice Rector for International Relations, who welcomed the participants and gave a brief introduction on the main characteristics of the UAB, a "young", "research" university with a solid position in several international rankings. Lluís Tort, president of the ECIU and professor in physiology of the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology at the UAB, emphasised the fact that these meetings form part of a "successful programme" which this year reaches its twelfth edition. He also stressed the importance of "sharing problems and solutions" among the different European universities. Each year, network members meet three times. This year's first meeting took place in Brussels in May; the second is taking place these days at the UAB; and the third will take place in Aveiro in October. Apart from these yearly meetings, on 19 and 20 September the ECIU has organised a meeting on innovative learning strategies entitled "Design Thinking and Problem Based Learning as an Innovative Learning Strategy", which will take place at the Lodz University of Technology in Poland.