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The European Universities Initiative’s next chapter must dismantle barriers to cooperation for all

08 Apr 2025

On 8 April, a draft report on ‘A new vision for the European Universities alliances’ is up for consideration by the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT).

The European University Association welcomes the draft report, which addresses the achievements of the European Universities Initiative (EUI) in strengthening transnational cooperation across the continent, as well as the challenges that the alliances still face. It is very positive that the draft presented by the rapporteur, MEP Laurence Farreng, highlights the EUI’s role in promoting systemic reform. These reforms must benefit the sector as a whole, including higher education institutions that do not take part in an alliance, by dismantling barriers to cooperation for all. To this end, EUA has consistently advocated for policies that avoid the creation of a two-tier system.

It is important that the alliances continue to flourish and explore collaboration with additional partners from within Europe and beyond, where this is feasible and appropriate.  Therefore, they must be appropriately funded under the EU’s next Multiannual Framework Programme. To ensure fairness and quality, it is also imperative that it remains possible to establish new alliances.

In addition, EUA supports the draft report’s call to retain the EUI as one of the flagships of Erasmus+. This will help to mainstream some of the innovative practices developed by the alliances and the lessons they have learned into other strands of the programme, and vice versa.

It will also underline the importance of uniting all EU education programmes under Erasmus+, also for the sake of simplification. Given the diverse range of activities that the alliances undertake, investment cannot come only from the EU. Therefore, the draft report is also correct in its conclusion about the importance of synergies with other funding sources, i.e. outside of Erasmus+ and EU funding in general.

The importance of achieving better synergies between different European funding instruments and simplifying the entire application and evaluation process is relevant across all EU funding programmes, including the EUI. Focusing on these synergies and overall simplification will yield additional benefits, making EU funding more efficient and effective for all beneficiaries. Granting preferential treatment to the alliances would be a step on the path to a two-tier system and a missed opportunity for simplification for all.

Importantly, the draft report emphasises the link between universities’ missions and the knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation. Indeed, the original purpose of the EUI was to explore exchange and collaboration in education. In this regard, the alliances have achieved a great deal, not least by demonstrating the benefits of longstanding European higher education reform within the European Education Area and European Higher Education Area. For alliances that wish to expand their activities in missions beyond education, it would be helpful to enable synergies already at the application stage and give support based on open competition for funding for transnational cooperation in research and innovation, also beyond the alliances.

Finally, transnational university cooperation is a unique European strength that contributes to Europe’s competitiveness by creating a connected and collaborative knowledge-based economy. However, any immediate and overly prescriptive connection that is drawn between the alliances and the EU’s strategic priorities, for example through specific calls restricted to the alliances, should be treated with caution. It is very important that the alliances work towards the academic mission that they have set for themselves, and are evaluated as such. This is needed to ensure that they are not instrumentalised to serve agendas external to the academic community, nor overburdened with tasks that are not aligned with their core goals. Most importantly, calls for specific actions linked to the European Union’s competitiveness agenda must take place as open calls to the entire higher education and research sector.  

EUA looks forward to a continuous dialogue with the European Parliament on this topic, and indeed on the broad role of universities in the future of the European Union.

TAGS
EU Funding
Academic Cooperation
Internationalisation
Simplification
European Universities Initiative
Erasmus+
Universities of the future
Institutional Strategy
Competitiveness

Useful links

DRAFT REPORT on a new vision for the European Universities alliances      
The next leap forward for transnational cooperation – Supporting sustainability and impact within and beyond European Universities alliances [EUA position]      
A research, education and innovation partnership for Europe’s competitiveness [EUA position]      
A renewed social contract for Europe and its universities – How universities and policy makers can work together to shape a strong, open and future-proof Europe      
EUA’s work on the European Universities alliances      

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