The European Union has called for a stronger and intensified collaboration between European universities. A central tool will be the European Universities initiative, which will be piloted under the Erasmus+ programme in 2018 and 2019. The aim of this forward-looking initiative is to strengthen research, education and innovation and to enhance the quality of student and staff mobility in Europe. But are universities aware of what quality cooperation means? Do universities look beyond international rankings when deciding who their partners are?
The EUF, in collaboration with the Ghent University, University of Warsaw and the European Consortium for Accreditation in higher education (ECA) wants to shine a light on those questions. With the eQuATIC project, the group researches how institutions evaluate their existing university partnerships and what decision-making processes exist to create, maintain or discontinue those partnerships. In parallel, an assessment tool that helps universities to measure and monitor the quality of existing partnerships is being developed. The EUF has launched a survey, open to all Higher Education Institutions, to map the situation of inter-institutional agreements in Europe. Join your colleagues and fill out the short 5-minute survey here.
If you want to find out more about the eQuATIC project and try the pilot tool, check the project website: http://equatic.eu.