The European Partnership for Innovative Campus Unifying Regions (EPICUR) alliance has just secured the support of the European Commission to become an attractive, innovative European university geared to the new generation of European citizens, to face the great societal challenges of the Europe of tomorrow.
The call for « European University » pilot projects was launched by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme. EPICUR receives funding of EUR 5 million over 3 years.
Our alliance is made up of 8 partners of Higher Education Institutions in Europe:
- Adam-Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland;
- University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece;
- University of Freiburg, Germany;
- University of Haute-Alsace, France;
- Karlsruher Institute for Technology, Germany;
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria;
- University of Strasbourg, France
As an alliance, we are now committed to building a project deeply rooted in the values of a Europe of knowledge across borders.
« We are happy to have won this first step because we have been working for many months to create this European university alongside our partners. […] We all share the same vision and ambition for the alliance. Our goal is to build bridges between the academic communities of the eight partner universities, thus serving as intellectual hubs for research and innovation.”
Christelle Roy, project leader of the EPICUR alliance and vice president of strategies and developments of the University of Strasbourg.
Key axes and organisation of the EPICUR European University
The first three years of the project correspond to a pilot phase in the long-term process of creating the European University fully integrated with partner universities. The project consists of six action programmes, each led by a university member of the alliance:
- Project management, steering the alliance (Strasbourg);
- Promote multilingualism and inclusive governance (Amsterdam);
- Implement innovative methods of learning and teaching for the European citizens of tomorrow (Freiburg);
- Open the way to an interuniversity campus, using a student and staff-centered approach (Aristotle U-Thessaloniki);
- Strengthen and connect regions through a European university: development within and between European regions (KIT);
- Dissemination and sharing of good practices, sustainable cooperation (Strasbourg).
The EPICUR alliance places the teaching of « Liberal Arts and Sciences Education » at the centre of its project: one of the long-term objectives is the creation of a four-year « European Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences », taught in English at several EPICUR universities.
The digital transformation of teaching formats and the development of student mobility are also priorities: the challenge is to develop a new educational approach based on the concept of inclusive excellence.
By 2025, the new generation should be able to master at least two foreign languages. Multilingualism and inclusion should consolidate European linguistic diversity while ensuring access for all to university studies.
From the links anchored between the partner institutions, the EPICUR alliance was conceived in a logic of increasing interconnection with the aim of linking in the short term, their respective networks existing in higher education and research.
