From 12 to 16 October 2026, Brussels hosted the first edition of the Higher Education Transformation Week (HETW), co-organised by the European University Foundation (EUF), the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the European Students’ Union (ESU) and EURASHE. The initiative met strong demand, with close to 400 participants registered ahead of the opening day, making it a full house for a first edition.  

The week brought together more than 30 Erasmus+ KA2 Cooperation Partnership projects for five days of free public workshops, conferences and events held across the city, with sessions organised around eight thematic areas. Higher education staff, student representatives and policymakers were granted the opportunity to learn about project results in practice and test new methods — from hybrid international courses to gamification approaches — while building new connections across borders. 

A highlight of the week was the joint policy event “Transforming higher education through bottom-up cooperation”, which brought together representatives of the higher education community with European and national policymakers to discuss how bottom-up cooperation, enabled by Erasmus+ KA2 Cooperation Partnerships, is driving transformation in the sector.  

After an opening by Valeria Costantino, Vice-President of EUF, Joachim Wyssling, Executive Manager of EUF, deliver a keynote speech looking back at ten years of bottom-up transformation through Cooperation Partnerships. 

Two panels followed. 

The first panel, moderated by Juan Rayón González, Director of the Ingenium Alliance, examined how Cooperation Partnerships help pursue the priorities of the Erasmus+ programme: digitalisation, inclusion, the green transition and active participation in the European Education Area. It brought together John Edwards, Secretary-General of EURASHE, Līga Kuzmane, Senior Professional Development and Community Manager at EUF, Valeria Biggi from the Italian National Agency INDIRE, and Neli Kalinova-Schmieder, Project Officer at ESN.  

The second panel, moderated by ACA Director Irina Ferencz, made the case for investing in bottom-up cooperation at European level in the 2028–2034 programming period. Its speakers were Filip Van Depoele, Head of Unit “Transnational Cooperation in Higher Education” at the European Commission, Florian Pecenka, Head of Unit for Women, Science and Research as well as Education at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU, Bálint Koós, Vice-President of ESU, and Stephan Geifes, Director of the German National Agency for Erasmus+ at DAAD and ACA Vice-President. 

A shared conviction ran through both discussions: Cooperation Partnerships have become one of the most valued Erasmus+ actions for the higher education community. Speakers pointed to their role in connecting universities across borders and in turning European policy goals into concrete change. They also stressed that the partnerships give smaller institutions a way into European projects, and that they encourage international offices to work hand in hand with academic staff and students. Their particular strength lies in their openness: institutions define their own challenges, develop and test their own solutions, and can scale up successful approaches so that they benefit a broader community. 

However, that strength is now under pressure. Last year, only around one in ten applications for decentralised Cooperation Partnerships received funding, and there was wide consensus in the room that this trend must be reversed. Looking ahead to the 2028–2034 programme period, the challenge will be to protect the bottom-up character of the action while keeping it within reach of a wide range of institutions, as demand keeps rising and the chances of success keep shrinking.