The European Commission has announced the results of the latest call for funding for European university alliances. Currently, 50 such transnational alliances, in which the participating universities collaborate at an unprecedented level, have the objective of innovatively transforming European higher education.
Thus, the UNITA alliance, of which the Western University of Timișoara is a part, continues to be supported by the EC until 2027 on its way to a European university community, for a new stage of development, to excellence in education and to flexible international studies , towards digitization and relevant research for local, regional and national ecosystems.
The consortium, formed by higher education institutions from France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Romania, to which Switzerland and Ukraine were later added, will thus remain under the umbrella of the "European Universities" initiative and will continue to contribute to the transformation of European higher education and increasing its global competitiveness.
The West University of Timișoara is a founding member of the alliance since 2020, together with the University of Beira Interior (Portugal), the University of Zaragoza (Spain), the University of Turin (Italy), the University of Pau and the University of Savoie Mont Blanc (France). Starting from November 2023, four other universities will become full members: the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (Portugal), the University of Brescia (Italy), the Public University of Navarra (Spain) and the Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania). Also, two universities from Switzerland (Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale) and Ukraine (National University of Chernivtsi) will become associated partner universities. The 2023-2027 period will be dedicated to strengthening the alliance and its initiatives, and its expansion from 6 to 12 member institutions allowed access to the maximum funding offered by the Commission.
UVT rector, Marilen Gabriel Pirtea: "The European Commission evaluated the first three years of the consortium's activity as very productive, the UNITA alliance of European universities being among the few alliances recognized for its proactive attitude, among the alliances formed through the "European University" initiative. Thus, UNITA supported the integration of member institutions not only through the project financed by this initiative, but also through a suite of complementary actions aimed at attracting funding for: increasing resources dedicated to research, digitization, supporting entrepreneurship among students, ensuring the sustainability of the ecosystem regionally and the testing of new instruments of inter-institutional collaboration at the European level. Also, UNITA represents an example of good practice at the European level for efforts to promote multilingualism, the diversity of international mobilities it offers, the connections of the alliance with relevant actors in the field of higher education at the global level or the tools for ensuring the quality of activities on which unfolds them. We are on the right track and ready to move to a new stage of development."
In the evaluation report of the first 18 months of joint activities, the Commission pointed out that UNITA is "clearly on its way to becoming a fully developed European University". The initial project will be completed in October 2023, and the new project will start in November 2023, with a total funding of over 14 million euros from the European Union. Thus, UNITA will continue its mission to support innovation in education through flexibility and internationalization, to stimulate the development of rural regions through relevant research, to increase the visibility of Romance languages and to connect border regions in Europe.
A unique characteristic of the UNITA alliance at this moment is the presence of two higher education institutions from each country represented within it, which significantly contributes to its ability to transfer good practices to national education systems as a result of the results obtained.
Moreover, in Romania there are currently 17 member universities of these European university alliances. A large part of them have come together since the end of 2020 within a network initiated by the rector of UVT, prof. Dr. Marilen Gabriel Pirtea, network called "RO European Universities". The purpose of the network is to provide the necessary framework for collaboration between these universities, between them and the central institutions in order to develop public policies, but also to effectively support the transfer of good practices developed within the alliances of which they are a part to the entire national system of higher education in Romania. We hope that in the period 2023-2027 this network will strengthen itself and become a relevant actor in Romania. The fact that at this moment approximately 50% of the students in Romania are affiliated to a Romanian university that is a member of an alliance of European universities makes this approach not only opportune, in the context provided by the new education laws, but also necessary, once more. And the fact that the Ministry of Education supported the efforts of Romanian universities that are members of such alliances indicates the interest shown at the national level to maximize the impact of the results obtained by them. Students from Romania will thus have access to a European-level education and, at the same time, they will feel at home in Europe.
