Across Summit at University of Craiova
International Alliance of European Cross-Border Universities Across set out new joint steps in education, research and digitalization
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In the Across alliance, Chemnitz University of Technology and its nine partner universities want to become a European university. With four border regions and nine countries, the participants cover a large part of the European Union and want to contribute to solving cross-border challenges on a European scale. Photo/Montage: European Cross-Border University Across and pexel.com (CC 0)/Jacob Müller -
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Eibl, Vice President for Academic and International Affairs at Chemnitz University of Technology, was part of the delegation that attended the meeting in Craiova. Photo: Across Department for Communication and Public Relations
The Across consortium summit in Craiova (Romania) on 10 June 2022 concluded with the identification of new steps to be made in the fields of education, research and digitalization. The plenary and panel meetings were attended by all ten member universities. The main directions of focus for the three-day discussions of the Across partners were digitalization, dissemination, and monitoring. The participating members, both onsite and online, agreed to establish an action plan for better promoting and building awareness of the consortium’s common goals in the transdisciplinary fields of "Education in Cross-Border Contexts", "Culture, Identity, Heritage", "Economic and Social Development" and "Management of Natural Resources".
The digitalization strategy aims at sketching the path towards a digital ecosystem of the alliance - the Across E-Campus. In this regard, the panelists laid out criteria for digital tools (e.g. learning and research platforms, communication and collaboration tools) to be viable on a European scale. It was agreed that a mapping of existing tools and expertise at each university will be carried out and a group of experts from IT departments of Across members and other areas will be introduced to guide the design of the E-Campus.
The goal of the alliance’s communication strategy is to position the consortium in the EU higher education area (and beyond), targeting both internal and external stakeholder groups and disseminating what it stands for, as well as its activities and achievements to the wider community. The contributors identified creative ways to promote the alliance’s mission and objectives, such as a “Cross-Border Open Day” to be organized synchronous in all ten partner universities, innovative social media solutions, the extension of the network of collaborators etc.
The participants to the meeting also set up a goal to identify the indicators that positively affect the successful integration of Across graduates in the common European job market. Meeting that goal will allow the alliance a targeted and flexible response to socio-cultural, environmental, or technological challenges in designing mobility routes and new joint programs.
The next meeting of the alliance will take place in Brussels.
About Across
The European Cross-Border University Across aims to become a reference for knowledge transfer and innovative development of cross-border territories. It aims to train experts who can influence and actively shape social, economic and scientific development in cross-border territories by addressing their fundamental challenges.
For this purpose, ten European universities have joined forces in the extraordinary cooperation project "Across" and set the goal of creating an integrating and cross-border European university. All partners are enthusiastic about the idea of creating a common European higher education area:
- Bialystok University of Technology (Poland)
- Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany)
- University of Craiova (Romania)
- University of Girona (Spain)
- University of Lleida (Spain)
- University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
- University of Perpignan Via Domitia (France)
- Rezekne Academy of Technologies (Latvia)
- University of Ruse (Bulgaria)
- University of Udine (Italy)
(Source: a. o. Across Department for Communication and Public Relations)
Mario Steinebach
15.06.2022
