European Commission Declared UNWE “European University”

The European Commission has announced today the results of the second call for ‘European Universities’ alliances, EU’s flagship initiative to build the universities of the future. UNWE participates in ENGAGE.EU, one of the selected consortia.

The future of Europe will be carved by major societal challenges: digitalization and artificial intelligence, climate change and sustainability, ageing societies and migration. Together with other leading European universities in business, economics, and social sciences, UNWE has formed the ENGAGE.EU alliance to provide European citizens with the set of skills and competences needed to tackle these major societal challenges. The initiative has been selected as one of the European Universities 2020.

ENGAGE.EU is a consortium of seven universities sharing European values and a global outlook, being an academic home to over 100,000 students:

• University of Mannheim (Germany) – Coordinator,
• Luiss Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy),
• NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Norway),
• Tilburg University (the Netherlands),
• UNWE (Bulgaria),
• University Toulouse 1 Capitole (France), and
• WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria).

The alliance will exploit the unique synergies of its excellent members, taking existing collaborations to a new dimension guided by a joint approach and a common goal, where each university brings its unique perspective shaped by its academic areas of specialization as well as geographical and economic context.

ENGAGE.EU Universities’ Rectors/Presidents, Vienna, January 2020 (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov (Rector of UNWE), Prof. Dr. Øystein Thøgerson (Rector of NHH), Prof. Dr. David Alary (First Vice President of UT1), Prof. Dr. Edeltaud Hanappi-Egger (Rector of WU), Prof. Dr. Andrea Prencipe (Rector of LUISS), Prof. Dr. Klaas Sijtsma (Rector of TilU), and Prof. Dr. Thomas Puhl (President of UMA).

ENGAGE.EU aims to enable its students to act as socially engaged European citizens and to have impact on society at large. Building on a solid fundament in the social sciences, the alliance is based on a comprehensive approach, following three interconnected paths: Engaged Learning, Engaged Research and Innovation and Engaged in Society. More specifically, the partner universities pursue the goal of developing new joint courses and teaching formats addressing current, future-oriented topics. These offers shall not only involve the institutions’ actual students, but also interested learners from society in general. In research, among other things, a think tank is intended to enrich the structural cooperation between researchers, learners and other alliance actors. Finally, ENGAGE.EU Labs enable universities to exchange ideas with stakeholders from civil society and business and open up space for innovations.

Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov – Rector of UNWE, after the official signing of the ENGAGE.EU Mission Statement

The three-year ENGAGE.EU project is a result of the efforts of a large international team of experts. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Michael Musov coordinated the work of the Bulgarian task force: Prof. D.Sc. Elka Todorova, Prof. Dr. Kamelia Stefanova, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Venelin Boshnakov, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Svetla Boneva, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Martin Ossikovski, Dr. Rositsa Velinova, and Dr. Savena Borisova. The project represents a unique opportunity to test new models for education and research and examine their potential to further increase the quality, international competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education. The ENGAGE.EU universities look forward to working together in this new European University. It will represent a unique opportunity to educate and inspire a new generation of citizens that will contribute to make Europe a global referent in how to tackle societal challenges.

More about ENGAGE.EU: http://engageuniversity.eu/

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The European Universities are an initiative within the Erasmus program of the European Union with the goal of establishing new standards of cooperation between higher education institutions. European Universities are intended to act as models of good practice to further increase the quality, international competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education.