European University ENLIGHT to convene in Uppsala
ENLIGHT is a European university consisting of ten broad, research-intensive higher education institutions in ten European countries. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
Between 22–24 November, some 150 people from ten European universities will convene in Uppsala. This will be the major meeting of the European University ENLIGHT, an EU-funded network project that promotes challenge-driven education and increases student and teacher mobility through joint educational activities.
ENLIGHT was launched in 2020 as an alliance of nine universities in Europe granted funding for an EU pilot project aiming to establish a European university. Funding has been provided by Erasmus+, and the aim has been to increase mobility between the higher education institutions through new, joint educational activities. The pilot project wrapped up on 31 October, but funding for a four-year extension of the project was greenlighted in the summer for a total of EUR 14.4 million.
Uppsala University’s Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt is pleased that the project will continue.
“ENLIGHT is a major development opportunity for Uppsala University. We have huge opportunities to enhance our activities through this,” he says.
“It will be very interesting to enter a new project phase that builds more strongly on the experiences of the pilot project,” notes Deputy Vice-Chancellor Coco Norén, who chairs the internal steering group for the project at Uppsala University.
150 people in total
Uppsala University will serve as the chair for the second half of 2024 and will arrange the ENLIGHT General Meeting held between 22–24 November this year. The meeting will be attended by the management, Vice-Chancellors, dirctors, programme coordinators, project managers and a number of other people from the nine universities in the network. In total, around 150 people will travel to Uppsala to draw up plans ahead of the coming four years.
Mattias Martinson, Director of ENLIGHT at Uppsala University. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
“We need to come to a collective understanding of what the new project entails. We’ll take a retrospective look at the lessons and experiences obtained from the pilot project, but also discuss how we can best solve new problems,” says Mattias Martinson, Director of ENLIGHT at Uppsala University.
Major development opportunity
ENLIGHT has used five themes as a basis for its work – Health & Wellbeing, Climate change, Digital revolution and impact of digitisation, Energy use and the circular economy and Equity – but in line with the new project period it is adding one more theme: Culture and creativity.
Martinson believes that ENLIGHT will become an increasingly visible part of Uppsala University’s educational activities. Certain elements could be compared to a continuation of the Bologna Process, which created new frameworks for examinations in Europe.
“It’s a new form of educational development that gives directors of studeies and teachers entirely new tools,” says Mattias Martinson.
Annica Hulth
ENLIGHT
ENLIGHT is a European university consisting of ten broad, research-intensive higher education institutions in ten European countries.
- University of the Basque Country (Spain)
- Ghent University (Belgium)
- University of Bordeaux (France)
- Comenius University Bratislava (Slovakia)
- University of Galway (Ireland)
- University of Göttingen (Germany)
- University of Groningen (Netherlands)
- University of Tartu (Estonia)
- University of Bern (Switzerland)
- Uppsala University (Sweden)