On 19th of April 2021, West University of Timsoara (UNITA alliance) and Eindhoven University of Technology (EuroTeQ alliance) organized a Mutual Learning Workshop on the topic of inter-university campus development in European Universities. The event was designed based on the idea of a bottom-up approach to networking among alliances on a specific topic that we believe is crucial to their sustainability: inter-university campuses and the services they offer to European Universities’ communities. With over 60 registered participants coming from 24 alliances, the event clearly illustrated a common interest in communicating, sharing best practices and learning from each other, as well as developing future frameworks for cooperation among aliances on this topic.
The UNITA alliance also offered a presentation on its’ own campus architecture and objectives, both in relation to academic and administrative dimensions, as well as community building purposes. UNITA is committed to supporting networking actions among alliances as a means to engender long-term systemic changes in European higher education together with other European Universities. Although this was an informal event, open to both waves of alliances, organized as a follow-up meeting to an initial discussion among the two organizing institutions, its’ objectives resonated with many other colleagues from the European Universities constellation: that we can and should cooperate, that we can be inspired by other alliances and their projects, that now is the time to work together in order to build the European Universities that the EC mandated us to deliver, in an initiative meant to engender systemic changes in higher education and research that could benefit students all over Europe.
The workshop was organized as a series of interventions from 9 alliances who were willing to briefly share their experience in regards to developing inter-university campuses, followed by discussions in each case and a short session dedicated to conclusions, with interventions on behalf of the European Commission.
The main points of reflection that the discussions brought to our attention have ranged from specific technical issues, to the broader purposes of inter-university campuses as means to ensure the sustainability of the alliances on medium and long term. For example, some topics which were addressed were: course catalogues and course enrollment tools, parallel administrative structures for alliances and/or integrated structures, GDPR procedures, elements for a successful virtual campus (inclusing automatic recognition of grades, tools to issue micro-credentials, social interaction tools, monitoring tools). Most alliances are trying not to invent the wheel, but build on existing platforms or solutions, which sometimes leads to technical dependencies. Another important aspect which was brought into discussion was the idea of correlating capabilities with objectives.
Additionally, it was interesting to see the different approaches to the composition of teams working on inter-university campus development in various alliances, as the models are very different. A very clear aspect was that each team/alliance has one feature of the campus that they focus on and in which they have extended expertise. This can be a starting point for future meetings organized on these specific topics and coordinated by each of these alliances. Last, but not least, student involvement is crucial and can translate into more clear benefits of inter-university campuses and various tools embedded in them for their personal and professional development.
On a more general level, this event underlined that European Universities face common challenges regarding their objectives of developing inter-university campuses and that solutions to these challenges can be developed across alliances, through networking and good practice sharing. The European Commission acknowledges these challenges and is ready to offer support in resolving potential issues in order to ensure the success of European Universities and their campuses double dimension: vehicle for digitalization of services and administration and framework for community building in a new European Higher Education Area.
