Eight out of the ten Andalusian public higher education institutions participating in the European Universities initiative participated in a fruitful day of work at the University of Almeria (UAL), showing the strength of the Andalusian university system.
The University of Almeria has hosted a meeting of maximum interest, in which more than twenty local representatives of the universities of Granada, Jaen, Malaga, Cordoba, Seville, Cadiz and Huelva have participated, sharing their progress and experiences in their respective Alliances. The participants were received by UAL’s Rector, José J. Céspedes, and later went on to discuss an intense programme of topics of common interest.
After a welcome to the Andalusian universities participating in the new European University Alliances, the presentation of the two new Alliances took place. These are PIONEER, with the participation of the University of Huelva, and UNINOVIS, in which the University of Malaga has been integrated. Tomás Lorenzana, General Coordinator of the UNIgreen Alliance has highlighted, in this sense, that eight of the ten public universities of Andalusia participate in as many European Universities, recalling that “the total number of Alliances, after five calls, is 64 for the whole of Europe, which gives an idea of the strength of the Andalusian public university system”.
The other Alliances are: ARQUS (coordinated by the UGR), and SEA-EU, (coordinated by the UCA), from the 2019 call and refinanced in 2022; ULYSSEUS (coordinated by the US), from the 2020 call, and INVEST, with the participation of the UCO, and NEOLAIA, with the participation of the UJA, both from the 2023 call, without forgetting UNIgreen, coordinated by UAL and corresponding to the 2022 call.
Tomás Lorenzana recalled that “the European Universities initiative is the most ambitious and best endowed Erasmus+ cooperation action of all times”. In fact, he added “the initiative aims to promote unprecedented levels of institutionalised cooperation in the search for a systemic, structural and sustainable impact on society, as well as to promote common European values and make a substantial leap in quality, performance, attractiveness and international competitiveness of the European Higher Education System”.
This meeting was an opportunity to report on the meeting of Spanish Universities in European Universities, held in Barcelona the previous week. As Prof. Lorenzana explained “all Andalusian Alliances are part of the national working group, composed of 55 universities in total, in 52 different European Alliances, twelve of them coordinated by Spanish universities, and in which Andalusian universities have a high representation”.
During the meeting, participants also discussed institutional relations with the Andalusian Ministry of Universities and the Agency for Scientific and University Quality in Andalusia (ACCUA) of the Regional Government of Andalusia. In this sense, “the Andalusian universities participating in the European Universities initiative work and act ‘as a block’ to facilitate dialogue and cooperation between them, so that common problems, such as the approval of multiple or joint study programmes (bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral) can be solved in an agile way”.
Finally, the group addressed the relations with the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) – European Commission (EC), the international promotion, beyond Europe, of the European Higher Education System, as well as the visibility of the Alliances.
