Ca’ Foscari celebrates a new international milestone: on 16 September, our University officially joined the EUTOPIA European University, one of the first 20 alliances funded by the European Commission under the “European Universities” (Erasmus +) action, aimed at strengthening the international competitivity of European universities and creating a new model for higher education in Europe.
The expansion of the network was officialized today, at the Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium’s Residence in the presence of Ca’ Foscari Rector, Tiziana Lippiello, and key European and local stakeholders.
EUTOPIA is an international alliance coordinated by the University of Liublijana, which brings together leading institutions such as the University of Warwick, Pompeu Fabra University-Barcelona, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, CY Cergy Paris University and the University of Gothenburg.
Together with Ca’ Foscari, the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal) are also joining the network.
The EUTOPIA universities are student-centred, working towards social cohesion by striving for excellence and inclusion, transcending national and educational boundaries to develop innovative pedagogical models, and advancing the movement of people and ideas.
This expansion reflects the desire of the EUTOPIA universities to broaden, widen, and deepen their efforts to strengthen their complementary capabilities and to offer their students, staff, and research communities a more comprehensive, connected range of international and intercultural opportunities.
The universities in the network share common ideals and values such as integrity, academic freedom, knowledge sharing with society, and openness to the international community.
The Rector of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Tiziana Lippiello, stated: "With this initiative, our university, together with Technische Universität Dresden and Nova University Lisbon, joins the EUTOPIA network. We look forward to collaborating under the banner of research, internationalisation and student mobility and innovative activities. The challenges of EUTOPIA have always been Ca' Foscari's challenges, as well. I believe that only the sharing of knowledge, partnership and cooperation among scholars can truly contribute to facing the global challenges of our time, from environmental issues to social and economic inequality, from the impact of technology and digitisation to the management of innovation. Ca' Foscari firmly believes in the objectives and in the mission of this project, and we are ready to make our contribution to its development."
Prof. Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of Technische Universität Dresden, sees the great potential of this European Alliance: "With our involvement in the EUTOPIA European University community, we expand our opportunities for shaping a European educational space, joint European and cross-institutional teaching projects and advance the Europeanization of our teaching programs. Also, student, lecturers, researcher and staff mobility across Europe is greatly facilitated, as is the expansion of funding programmes for postdocs. And last but not least, joint applications with our EUTOPIA partners open up advantages when competing for European research funding. Within EUTOPIA we would like to bring to bear the innovative power of science to master the big challenges of the 21st century such as the climate crisis.”
Prof. João Sáàgua, Rector of NOVA University Lisbon, declared about the enlargement: “Being part of this alliance will bring great opportunities to collaborate with our European partners in order to develop our mission of being a global and civic university. For NOVA this means to be a high international profile, student centred institution, that serves society through knowledge and addresses today’s global and local challenges in innovative and impactful ways. We expect to bring our partners, among other things, new routes for cooperation not only within the EU but also with Portuguese speaking countries with which NOVA has a longstanding relation.”
EUTOPIA acts as an international gateway for the exchange of knowledge and cultures and is delighted to additionally announce its association with four universities beyond Europe: Université Internationale de Rabat (Morocco), Kyungpook National University (South Korea), Monash University (Australia), and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). This broader, more diverse network of partnerships will allow us to better address global challenges. EUTOPIA is today a more robust alliance, with a greater impact on society, opening the prospect of a more diverse and attractive inter-university campus.
