While the nine EUGLOH partners are busy moving forward with the second phase of the European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH), the submission of the final report of EUGLOH 1.0 gives reason to look back on the achievements of the Alliance’s pilot phase (2019-2022). The final report summarizes the achievements of the first three years of EUGLOH with the five original partners: Université Paris-Saclay (UPSaclay), Lund University (LU), University of Szeged (USZ), University of Porto (UPorto) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU).
The efforts to reach the Alliance’s aim to provide a high-quality, world class education to its students and to enhance that education with European mobility experience – whether physical, virtual or blended – have literally been numerous.
Over the course of the EUGLOH pilot phase, the Alliance implemented close to 160 courses, of which over 50 were ECTS credit bearing, and more than 140 events for its students and staff. The Alliance created procedures to facilitate travel and the transfer of ECTS credits between partner universities for the entire Alliance.
These courses and events benefited nearly 10 000 students in all study levels and fields. The activities came in diverse formats (physical, virtual or blended), including intensive programmes (e.g. summer schools), seminars, talks, workshops, conferences, online discussions, competitions, and webinars.
To enable physical travel between EUGLOH campuses, IT experts from EUGLOH partner universities have collaborated on the development of a European Student Card (ESC) prototype that will enable EUGLOH students and staff to use their smartphone wallet in order to access a locally defined set of on-campus services.
In total, 1 450 students and 750 staff members participated in the many campus life activities that were organised on a continuous basis. These activities included intercultural learning workshops and mentorships, EUGLOH Talks and Alliance Days held on multiple campuses simultaneously each year. Further actions such as open calls for project proposals to increase student engagement, photo contests and language workshops aimed at fostering a shared sense of belonging to the Alliance.
EUGLOH students were also highly engaged in the Alliance’s governance. Through participation in the International Student Board, Executive Board and Governing Board, students had the opportunity to interact with diverse European stakeholders, appropriate and influence the missions of the EUGLOH Alliance, and anchor their education in the European context.
When it came to external stakeholders, the Alliance directly engaged with more than 80 representatives from companies, start-ups, NGOs and civil society organisations, incubators, EU Institutions and international organisations, to name but a few. They participated as experts, invited speakers, mentors and jury members and served to anchor activities in real world issues and to bridge the gap between education and the labour market.
All in all, the integration of all partner universities into EUGLOH has contributed significantly to a strengthening of their internationalisation strategies, while simultaneously stimulating new training programmes and a greater capacity for academic staff to teach in an international context.
The achievements presented in the final report demonstrate that transnational cooperation between higher education institutions lead to the transformation of individual institution and consequently of the higher education sector as a whole. The results from the EUGLOH pilot phase serve as a solid foundation for EUGLOH's consolidation phase, beginning with the integration of its four newest university partners: University of Alcalá, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, University of Novi Sad, and Universität Hamburg. Together, the nine EUGLOH members are committed to having a strong and lasting impact on Education, Research, Innovation and Service to Society in Europe through the actions of this Alliance.
