The joint European Campus of City-Universities (EC2U) alliance forum of seven European universities will be held from 19 to 21 May. The core themes of the event, organised by the University of Turku, are social sustainability, cooperation between cities and universities, as well as micro-credentials and students' engagement. Registration for the whole event or parts of it is now open.
The EC2U Alliance organises every six months,a forum based on current themes, which is open to students from students to staff as well as other citizens. The special desire is to involve city representatives, as one of the biggest goals of the whole alliance is to strengthen cooperation between universities and cities.
The forum will raise the profile of the EC2U Alliance, share good practice and discuss selected topics. Due to the corona situation, the Turku forum is organised virtual and is a free event.
— EC2U promotes interesting and strong collaboration when it comes to European education and city-campus co-operation. It is an honour for the University of Turku to get to host this week. The programme and its realisation are a joint effort, and the atmosphere will be long remembered as something that increased the sense of togetherness even during this exceptional spring. I warmly welcome all the students and members of staff from the EC2U partner universities as well as representatives of all the cities and stakeholders, says Vice Rector Piia Björn from the University of Turku.
The themes of the panel discussions and the round table are social sustainability, especially from the point of view of mental health at this particular time, cooperation between cities and universities, and microcredentials ie questions related to the recognition of previous experience, as well as ways to support the student to progress in their studies.
In addition to extensive discussions, there will be numerous themed coffee rooms where you can stop for a moment or enjoy yourself throughout the coffee hour.
European universities are alliances of several universities, a kind of spiritual campuses. The initiative aims to bring together a new generation of creative Europeans who work together in many languages across national and scientific boundaries to meet major societal challenges and address skills shortages in Europe.
The European Commission accepted the EC2U Alliance as a new member of the European Universities in July 2020. Seven universities, the Universities of Coimbra, Iasi, Jena, Pavia, Poitiers, Salamanca and Turku, have a total of 160,000 students and 20,000 employees.
The co-operation is expected to generate synergies in the fields of education, research and innovation, as well as to promote not only formal but also non-formal education. Among other things, three international master's programs are currently being built in the Alliance's main focus areas, ie Good Health and Well-Being, European Languages and Cultures in Contact ja Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Development activities have received co-financing from the EU's Erasmus + and Horizon2020 programs.
>> Read the full program
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>> Read more about the alliance
Erja Hyytiäinen