The idea of creating European Universities was born out of the need to strengthen the position of these universities on international arena. The initiative of European Commission is intended to facilitate the establishment of institutional cooperation between different universities, which will allow to create joint European campuses. In practice, this means the mobility of employees, doctoral students and students between the associated units (in on-site, virtual or hybrid form), as well as the opportunity to mutually use research infrastructure, data and resources, as well as to carry out education and research with a view to undertake the most important civilisation challenges. In line with the assumptions of the European Universities initiative, the universities forming alliances are to educate active citizens with state-of-the-art knowledge in each scientific discipline, want to share it and have influence on shaping the future of local area, Poland and the whole world. 17 European universities were selected in the first edition of the competition, and 24 in the second edition.
The University of Silesia in Katowice, together with six universities from Germany (leader), Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy, forms a consortium called „Transform4Europe – T4E: The European University for Knowledge Entrepreneurs”. The upcoming years will be the period of getting to know one another and developing a joint campus. The originators of the consortium are convinced that based on common experiences, education and opportunity to conduct scientific research at the highest level, European Universities can not only be important partners for regions, countries and the whole Europe in talking about the future, but also provide new solutions for the challenges that we are all currently facing. Please read the interview with Assoc. Prof. Małgorzata Myśliwiec, Professor of the University of Silesia, project coordinator on behalf of the University of Silesia, who talks about what we can gain thanks to intense international cooperation.
On Wednesday, 4 November 2020, two meetings of representatives of the European Commission were held – the first one with the rectors representing the newly established consortia, and the second with rectors of all universities forming 41 alliances. The webinar was attended by Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, Rector of the University of Silesia. The participants listened to speeches on the concept of European Universities, and talked about the potential of the created consortia during a debate,
Detailed information about the European Universities initiative is available on: www.ec.europa.eu.
The University of Silesia in Katowice is part of one of forty-one European Universities. It carries out the project called „Transform4Europe – T4E: The European University for Knowledge Entrepreneurs” (T4E) together with six others universities.