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EUA Survey: Perspective on the sector and future of the European Universities Initiative

As decisions are being taken regarding the funding of EU programmes amid a global pandemic, in early 2020 EUA conducted a survey gathering responses from 219 higher education institutions (HEIs) from 34 systems in Europe on the topic of international strategic institutional partnerships, aiming to provide a Europe-wide  overview on international collaborations, perceptions and experiences of higher education institutions.

In its published position, the EUA calls on the European Commission, EU member states in Council and the European Parliament to consider seven points for future development of the European Universities Initiative, as follows: 

  • To remove obstacles and work towards a better compatibility of systems, positioning the European Universities Initiative as an additional way to explore strategic cooperation, given that 68% of HEIs believed legal obstacles challenged their participation in the initiative and 59% considered administrative obstacles derived from different institutional structures and processes to also be obstacles.
  • To give alliances as much room for manoeuvre as possible, as 88% of responding HEIs noted a need for more leeway to act freely and creatively.
  • To maintain diversity in collaboration models while also allowing for sufficient and equal financial support for each of those models.
  • bottom-up approach with joint calls for the initiative for the 2021-2027 EU funding programmes generation.
  • To foster cohesion within Europe and contribute to competitiveness.
  • To allow for the possibility of partnerships with countries outside the EU and Erasmus + Programme, so that they can participate in the initiatives and strengthen the alliances.
  • To simplify and align funding programme rules to facilitate synergies between different kinds of instruments (e.g. national and EU funding).

 

The EUA position is available here (pdf).

More information here.