The European Digital UniverCity (EDUC) alliance has brought Masaryk University into an international project. Photo Credit: Archive of Masaryk University.
Brno, 3 Sept. (BD) – The EDUC Alliance, of which Masaryk University is a member, has won a new call for proposals from the European Commission and will receive a grant of EUR 12.8 million for the next four years. A total of 52 consortia applied for the call and 20 of them were selected.
The eight-member European Digital UniverCity (EDUC) alliance was established in 2019 as one of 17 pilot consortia that received a grant under the European Commission’s first call for European universities. There are currently 44 similar alliances in Europe, aiming to create deeper links throughout the European higher education system. The existing alliances are supported by EU funding, but have to compete hard for funding in the next programming period.
In addition to Masaryk University, the EDUC alliance consists of seven other universities from France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Norway and Spain, and its activities mainly focus on the international education of students in various forms, from traditional study stays to virtual mobility, as well as cooperation in science and research and support for staff mobility and training.
The Alliance has a total of almost 200,000 students and 31,000 employees and its main goal is to closely connect all eight universities, to open them up to deeper mutual cooperation and to harmonise processes in various areas of university life.
The interconnection of the universities is mainly facilitated by the virtual inter-university campus, where students can enrol in one of dozens of virtual and hybrid inter-university courses and experience international learning without leaving Brno. Some lecturers at Masaryk University are also involved in inter-university education and report great potential for the future in teaching in tandem with international colleagues.
“The three years at EDUC have opened up a number of new opportunities for us: we have connected not only in teaching, but also in research and career centre activities, and we have also opened joint summer schools. I firmly believe that in the next programming period joint study schemes will be established, whose graduates will receive not only a degree from Masaryk University, but also degrees from foreign universities,” said Břetislav Dančák, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation.
By 2027, the Alliance aims to become a closely connected European university and a new type of international university community, based on core values such as interdisciplinarity, inclusiveness, multilingualism, knowledge transfer and the use of digital technologies to prepare students for future societal challenges.
