ENLIGHT: transforming European higher education together with other universities

What if students studying at a university in a certain country in Europe could automatically get access to the best courses, best teachers and best professors at 8 other European universities? What if lecturers were facilitated to learn and share educational ideas with other lecturers from those universities? What if researchers were provided with a way to share ideas with researchers from the other universities to solve local, national and global problems? That is what ENLIGHT, a new European University Alliance, is about: nine diverse universities, including the University of Groningen, shaping the education of the future. To launch the alliance, an online ENLIGHT Kick-Off week will be held from 1 to 5 March, as well as a UG internal kick-off on 1 March.

The ENLIGHT consortium was selected in the frame of “European Universities", the European Commission’s pilot program for new multilateral networks. Over the next three years ENLIGHT will focus on five themes to pilot new learning formats: climate change, health and well-being, inequality, digital revolution, energy and circularity. In the long term ENLIGHT wants to create an open space between the nine universities for learning, teaching and working together. It wants to empower learners as globally engaged citizens with state-of-the-art knowledge, skills, and innovation potential to tackle the major societal transition and to promote equitable quality of life and sustainability.

The nine universities that ENLIGHT unites are: University of the Basque Country (ES), University of Bordeaux (FR), Comenius University Bratislava (SK), National University Ireland Galway (IE), University of Göttingen (DE), University of Groningen (NL), University of Tartu (EE), Uppsala University (SE) and Ghent University (BE).

Internal kick-off

On 1 March, the UG organized an internal kick-off to launch ENLIGHT. Amongst the speakers were Rector Magnificus Cisca Wijmenga, Elmer Sterken and student assessor Teun Having. You can watch the stream here.

Kick-Off week

During the Kick-Off week from 1 to 5 March ENLIGHT offers a fully online program, comprising work sessions, public lecture sessions on the ENLIGHT focus areas and evening events, each hosted by one of the nine ENLIGHT partners. Join one of our virtual coffee breaks and meet one of your fellow ENLIGHT colleagues, get to know more about ENLIGHT projects in the showcase sessions and post your ideas on one of the message boards! Keynote speakers during the Kick-Off week include European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, Former President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy and Chief Executive Officer of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens Monika Froehler.