On May 15, the 1st Conference of European Universities was held in Warsaw. This is a new initiative dedicated to alliances of higher education institutions from across the European Union, implemented under the Erasmus+ programme.
The motto of this year's edition is "European Universities as the basis of innovative Europe". The award was received by the Rector of PUT prof. Teofil Jesionowski.
The Poznan University of Technology was also awarded among 18 Polish universities of European universities in the "personality of the year" category. Vice-Rector prof. Paweł Śniatała was among the distinguished group of nominees:
- dr hab. inż. Paweł Śniatała, prof. PP – Politechnika Poznańska;
- prof. dr hab. inż. Marek Pawełczyk – Politechnika Śląska;
- dr hab. Rafał Witkowski, prof. UAM – Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu;
- dr hab. Anna Jurkowska-Zeidler, prof. UG – Uniwersytet Gdański;
- prof. dr hab. Stanisław Kistryn – Uniwersytet Jagielloński.
The aim of the conference was to exchange experiences and undertake joint initiatives leading to the development of long-term, structural, sustainable and systemic cooperation in the field of education, research and innovation throughout Europe.
Under three calls for proposals, 44 alliances of European Universities were selected, which include 340 higher education institutions from 31 countries, including 18 from Poland.
The European Universities initiative was presented by the European Commission in November 2017 as part of the overall vision for a European Education Area by 2025. The European strategy for universities assumes support until mid-2024 for 60 European Universities covering over 500 higher education institutions. To this end, in the current programming period 2021-2027, a record amount of EUR 1.1 billion has been earmarked under the Erasmus+ programme to support European universities.
More information on the Erasmus+ European Universities initiative is available on the official website of the program: https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/european-universities-initiative
