3. 4. 2023
On 30 March 2023, representatives of the 4EU+ Alliance participated in the event Italian and French Universities in the European Universities Initiative. The event was organized by the Italian French University (Université Franco Italienne – Università Italo Francese) and the University of Turin, coordinator of the alliance UNITA – Universitas Montium.
The University of Milan and Sorbonne University participated in the conference, which reunited Italian and French universities belonging to 30 sister alliances, with the aim of sharing experiences in the deployment of their projects and activities.
The meeting was introduced by a plenary session where the state of the art of the European Universities Initiative was debated by representatives of Italian, French and European Institutions. Vanessa Debiais-Sainton (Head of Higher Education Unit, DG-EAC, European Commission) stressed the role of European Alliances in long-lasting and structural cooperation for widespread excellence across all regions of Europe.
The discussion about the achievements and future goals of the European University alliances was further enriched during four thematic workshops on Education, Mobility, R&I and Student engagement.
In the Session on Education: Innovative learning paths within the Alliances, Francesca Villata (University of Milan) enlightened the 4EU+ step-by-step approach towards the innovation of the learning and teaching experience across our universities.
Antonella Baldi (University of Milan) presented the 4EU+ achievements during the session Mobility: Mobility formats for the EU Inter-university campus. She exposed how our Alliance enhanced mobility thanks to structural cooperation, with the set-up of a Mobility agreement and a common framework for mobility allowances, as well as a set of tools such as the Mobility Charter and schemes. The role of the 4EU+ IT infrastructure and development of the Student portal in the support of virtual mobility was also explained.
Sabine Bottin-Rousseau (Sorbonne University) participated in the workshop R&I. Research and Innovation and entrepreneurship for the local ecosystems, where she discussed the promotion of entrepreneurship within the 4EU+ Alliance. She focused on the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship training program, delivered in collaboration with businesses and civil society organizations.
A video made by a Sorbonne University PhD student was also broadcast during the session Students: Students' engagement in EU universities. Thibault Grison talked about his experience in the educational project Thinking AI.
Our Alliance’s creativity was also showcased during the poster session, where the conference attendees could admire the beautiful poster you can see below.
The event was a great opportunity to share the achievements and challenges we are facing in building European Universities, and to get to know our colleagues from sister alliances.
More information about the event is available here (in Italian and French).
Photos courtesy of the University of Turin - UNITA Office