Higher education associations take position on the future of the European Universities Initiative.
In the last week, associations representing the higher education sector issued statements concerning the future of the European Universities Initiative (EUI). In its position paper, the European University Association (EUA) calls on policy makers and governments to use the European University Initiative as a test case for innovations and for the removal of legal obstacles to cooperation in higher education. It draws attention, however, to the importance of a diversity of funding mechanisms, which should not be jeopardised by a concentration of means towards the European University Initiative. The EUA also recalls that not all EU regions are well represented in the EUI, and it stresses the importance of cooperation with partners from outside the EU and Erasmus+ countries, above all members of the Bologna process, to promote international competitiveness. The current pilot call has been restricted to Erasmus+ partners. The EUA’s position paper is a product of a recent survey on international strategic institutional partnerships and the European Universities Initiative, together with a report “International strategic institutional partnerships and the European Universities Initiative”.
Similarly, CESAER, a network of universities of science and technology, stresses in its position paper the importance of bottom-up initiatives within EUI and the importance of refraining from favouring top-down interventions. It also calls for the initiative to be more open for participation of third countries.
Both networks underline that the initiative should encompass support to the research dimension. Future actions could build on experiences from the pilots 2019 and 2020: Under the Horizon 2020 programme, a funding line was introduced to support the research and innovation dimension of European Universities alliances selected under the Erasmus+ programme, that is, the 17 alliances awarded under the 2019 call and the alliances that will be awarded under the 2020 call. The Horizon 2020 funding line provides support for the research dimension in the range of EUR 2 million per alliance.
For the 2020 European Universities call under Erasmus+, 62 applications were submitted, which is eight more than in 2019. The results will be announced in July. As in the 2019 call, Swiss institutions were not eligible to participate.
How the European Universities Initiative will look like post-2020 is more than unsure. The initiative is one of the new flagships that are expected to tie substantial amounts of budget within Erasmus+. The European Parliament has thus been cautious to provide full support to the initiative as long as the overall budget for Erasmus+, that depends on the EU’s overall budget for 2021-2027, is not clear yet.
Against the backdrop of the challenging financial situation, directors of the Erasmus+ national agencies (NAs) for education and training submitted an open letter to the European Commission in early April. The letter “Erasmus+ in connection to COVID-19” is not limited to higher education but concerns the whole scope of the Erasmus+ programme, and it emphasises the importance of continued transnational cooperation, particularly in times of crisis. It also identifies areas where the future Erasmus+ programme can contribute to address the current challenges.