You coud not attend or follow the event ? Find out the replay of all the conferences on the EC2U Youtube Page.
Wednesday 27th October
After a day of closed working meetings, the beginning of the Forum on October 27th was marked by the Opening ceremony, led by Prof. Dr. Ludovic Thilly, General Coordinator of the EC2U Alliance; Prof. Dr. Pilar Garcés Garcia, Vice-Minister of Universities and Research at Junta de Castilla y Leon; Prof. Dr. Ricardo Rivero Ortega, Rector of the University of Salamanca; and Prof. Dr. Efrem Yildiz Sadak, Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Salamanca.
Prof. Dr. Pilar Garcés Garcia continued her intervention by offering a very clear and concise presentation on “Languages and Language Policy in International Institutions”. On multilingualism she was affirming: “[Multilingualism] is very important because it takes us into different cultures, it opens our minds, and obviously it makes us understand much better”.
The programme of the first day also included a presentation on “Enhancing EC2U links between education and research”, 3 public conferences on the Virtual Institutes (for Quality Education, for Health and Wellbeing and for Sustainable Cities and Communities), workshops and a Spanish gastronomic evening.
Thursday 28th October
The 2nd day of the Forum started with a round table entitled “How to assess the impact of European universities?”. After the broadcasting of an introductory video of Frédérique Vidal, French Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the representatives from other alliances and networks gave their views on the given topic:
- Emily Palmer, Secretary-General, Una Europa, (PPT presentation)
- Olga Wessels, Head of Brussels Office, ECIU (PPT presentation)
- Emmanuelle Gardan, Director, Coimbra Group (PPT presentation)
- Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik, Policy Coordinator, EUA (PPT presentation)
Speakers from the European Commission also made a presentation on the progress and transformational impact potential of the European Universities initiative (PPT presentation)
- Tine Delva, Deputy Head of Unit, Higher Education, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture
- Stijn Delauré, Policy Officer, Academic Research and Innovation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
As the link between the universities and their respective cities is a major concern of the EC2U consortium, the participants were then received by Carlos Manuel García Carbayo, Mayor at the Salamanca City Hall, to discuss with all the partners about the creation of an EC2U ecosystem. Through a participative workshop, every attendee could give their opinions and suggestions on the inputs they could provide and the actions they dreamed to be established in the EC2U ecosystem by 2030.
Finally, given the importance of the European Universities initiative, the event also included the participation of the Spanish Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escriva Belmonte, who concluded the Forum with a closing conference on “What do we know about migration and what should we do about it?”.
In parallel of those meetings, several events were organised by and for the students, strengthening their links within the EC2U community: sports competitions, intercultural night & a debate on “The future of higher education: what do students need?”.
Next Forum in Pavia, Italy
The organisation of this 3rd EC2U Forum was the responsibility of the University of Salamanca and it was the first one that made it possible for the EC2U community to meet face-to-face, taking place in a hybrid mode, as people could also join the meeting via a remote connexion.
Everyone is now crossing fingers to be able to meet totally face-to-face for the next EC2U Forum that will take place in Pavia during the first week of April 2022.
You coud not attend or follow the event ? Find out the replay of all the conferences on the EC2U Youtube Page.
© graphic recording by Blanche Illustrates