A Successful Online Kick-off for the European University ENLIGHT
In early March 2020, the European University ENLIGHT was officially launched. ENLIGHT unites the universities of the Basque Country, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Galway, Ghent, Göttingen, Groningen, Tartu and Uppsala. The aim of the network is to drive a transformation of higher education as well as the innovation of research in order to promote sustainability, global engagement and equitable quality of life. To this end, ENLIGHT will pilot new learning formats across five focus themes: Climate Change, Health and Well-Being, Equity, Digital Revolution, Energy and Circularity. In these areas, students will engage with researchers, citizens and professionals from their communities. They will discuss problems and solutions, examine innovation potential and promote diversity. The exchange within the network will allow European solutions to emerge from these local contexts that will be disseminated via various Third Mission events and ENLIGHT dialogues with stakeholders from all around Europe and beyond. Students will be involved throughout this process. This constitutes a completely new form of university education that equips ENLIGHT students with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed on the global labour market.
For the kick-off week events that took place from 1st to 5th of March, ENLIGHT managed to attract almost 1,300 participants and received over 4,000 online views. In order to communicate and discuss the goals of ENLIGHT, the transformation of European higher education, the kick-off week brought together academics, experts and students from all of the ENLIGHT universities as well as associated partners and renowned external stakeholders who actively contributed to one of the round table discussions or lectures. For example, on Tuesday 2nd of March, Mariya Gabriel (EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth), Herman von Rompuy (President Emeritus of the European Council) and Monika Froehler (CEO Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizen) together with some of the ENLIGHT rectors discussed the question “Shaping communities – How can universities contribute to local and regional challenges?“.
Simultaneously, the ENLIGHT YouTube channel was launched to keep the public informed about the project. On the channel you can find many of the kick-off week recorded sessions and various other videos about ENLIGHT and the European Universities Initiative. (see https://www.youtube.com/c/ENLIGHTEU/playlists)
Please visit our website (https://enlight-eu.org/), register for our newsletter (https://enlight-eu.org/index.php/university-about-us/about-enlight/newsletter) & follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/enlight_eu), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/enlight-europeanuniversity) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAs4YULyi8ZgXsrDIGLg5Rw)
Contact:
Marco Lange
International Office
Phone: +49 551/39 21356
Email: marco.lange@zvw.uni-goettingen.de