New Future4Alliances project to develop European higher education cooperation
The Finnish National Agency for Education is one of the project partners of the Future4Alliances – National and regional support for European University Alliances project. The project also has two Finnish associated partners, namely the Ministry of Education and Culture and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The three-year project is coordinated by Campus France.
The project will organise workshops and field visits to encourage the exchange of good practices and thus facilitate a reflection on the support provided by public authorities.
The project will also publish recommendations to EU Member States, the European Commission, European Universities alliances and stakeholders. Given the broad field of operation of the alliances, the project’s recommendations are expected to benefit European higher education as a whole and its development.
Providing Finnish higher education institutions with an avenue for European co-creation
The Ministry of Education and Culture plays a key role in the project, as the cooperation to be carried out will include discussion between national steering authorities. Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, for its part, represents the higher education institution and alliance perspective in the project. Metropolia is currently the only Finnish higher education institution coordinating its own alliance.
“Ensuring the interest and success of Finnish higher education institutions in this initiative also requires Finland to adopt an active approach, as European discussion on higher education policy is also Finnish discussion. The Future4Alliances project offers an excellent opportunity for us to engage in cooperation with our key EU partners. The project supports key EU values, such as openness, multilingualism and academic freedom – values that Finland wants to promote,” says Director Jonna Korhonen from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The newly launched project will focus on three priority themes: Sustainability of Funding, Joint Educational Programmes and Activities and International Dimension and Hosting Measures.
European Universities alliances prepare and implement numerous joint study programmes at different degree levels, but have run into numerous challenges in doing so due to different national and university-specific practices, which the new European degree initiative also aims to tackle.
As far as the global dimension is concerned, the work is related to increasing the visibility and attractiveness of higher education institutions for students and staff arriving from outside Europe.
The project partners of the Future4Alliances project include ministries and national agencies not only from Finland and France, but also from Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Austria, Norway, Serbia and Slovenia. In addition to them, the project has 23 associated partners from 13 countries.
Alliances support close cooperation between European higher education institutions
The Erasmus+ programme funds consortia of European higher education institutions, or European Universities alliances. These alliances develop high-quality education, research and innovations and increase mobility between higher education institutions.
“We at the Finnish National Agency for Education support the participation of Finnish higher education institutions in alliances. To this end, it is important that we develop the operating conditions of alliances based on the needs of higher education institutions. The cooperation with higher education institutions to be carried out in this project will also contribute to the development of our own activities,” says Programme Manager Anni Kallio from the Finnish National Agency for Education.
Each alliance consists of an average of nine higher education institutions from different European countries, which engage in close and ambitious cooperation with each other. The total number of European Universities alliances is 65. At present, there are 23 Finnish higher education institutions involved in these alliances, which means that as many as 78% of Finnish higher education students study at alliance universities.
More information
Anni Kallio, Programme Manager (the Finnish National Agency for Education), anni.kallio [at] oph.fi (anni[dot]kallio[at]oph[dot]fi)
Laura Lalu, Programme Manager (the Finnish National Agency for Education), laura.lalu [at] oph.fi (laura[dot]lalu[at]oph[dot]fi)
Kaisu-Maria Piiroinen, Counsellor of Education (Ministry of Education and Culture), kaisu-maria.piiroinen [at] gov.fi (kaisu-maria[dot]piiroinen[at]gov[dot]fi)
Päivi Bosquet, Counsellor of Education (Ministry of Education and Culture), Paivi.Bosquet [at] gov.fi (paivi[dot]bosquet[at]gov[dot]fi)