The European University Alliances are not an elitist club, but a group of innovators whose achievements benefit the entire higher education system
Conference on the impact of European Universities enabled sharing between alliances as well as with non-participating HEIs.
On Tuesday, October 7, we held a conference on the systemic impact of European University Alliances on the Czech higher education sector. The conference attracted nearly 70 participants from higher education institutions (HEIs) that are part of one of the 65 financially supported European University Alliances, as well as from HEIs not involved in this initiative.
The conference was opened by the Deputy Director of the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research, Roman Klepetko, who emphasised the role of alliances in the entire higher education sector: "There are currently 65 alliances, or 73 including alliances with the Seal of Excellence, involving a total of more than 650 universities from across Europe. However, there are almost 5,000 higher education institutions of all types in the European Education Area. The aim of the alliances is not to build a closed club, but to support changes throughout the higher education system and thus contribute to the development of the European Higher Education Area and the European Education Area."
In a short presentation on current developments regarding European University Alliances, participants learned that in this programming period, only the 2026 and 2027 calls are planned to support alliances, which will primarily target already supported alliances. However, according to the latest information, the European Commission cannot restrict the calls and unsupported alliances can also apply. The presentation also mentioned that unsupported alliances can draw inspiration and information about the results of alliances from the European community of European University alliances FOREU4ALL and the LTA SPREAD EUI project.
Six contributions from representatives of Czech universities involved in European University alliances followed. Iveta Šimberová, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation at the Brno University of Technology, was the first to share her experiences from the EULiST alliance. In her contribution, she explained how the EULiST alliance developed a definition of mobility in order to have uniform figures for reporting mobility (both student and staff), which is to reach 50% within the alliance. She emphasised that alliances are encouraged to try innovative mobility formats, such as BIP (Blended Intensive Programs), but academics are not financially motivated to implement these new methods of international teaching, which could be tackled in the future.
The topic of BIP was also addressed by Renáta Tomášková, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation at the University of Ostrava (NEOLAiA alliance), and Monika Maňáková, Institutional Coordinator of the Erasmus+ programme at VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava (U!REKA alliance). Both speakers agreed that BIPs are not focused solely on mobility, but are highly beneficial projects that strengthen cooperation between universities and offer innovative forms of teaching to students, often based on the principles of challenge-based education in real-life environments. This also allows for the involvement of local actors, such as municipal or regional authorities, companies, the non-profit sector, etc.
Patrik Mottl, Head of the Science and Research Department at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, shared the EuroTeQ alliance's experience in hybrid teaching in an international environment. "Our alliance had the advantage of introducing online teaching during the global Covid-19 pandemic, so it was very natural. In the years following the pandemic, however, student interest in purely online teaching has declined, as they want to return to partner universities in person. We have also seen a significant drop-out rate among students who enrol in online courses but do not complete them. In general, we have identified the main obstacles to online teaching within the alliance: inequalities between online and in-person students and technical support. We then came up with solutions: we introduced changes to the form of teaching, where possible, asynchronous teaching (professors record lectures in advance and students can watch them at their convenience), and we included a mobility component."
Marie Jadrníčková, research officer for the Aurora Alliance at Palacký University in Olomouc, outlined the support for scientific and research cooperation within the Aurora Alliance in her contribution: “I consider the Memorandum on the Sharing of Scientific and Research Infrastructure, signed in Olomouc two years ago, to be one of the most significant milestones at the political level. In this agreement, the universities agree to provide scientists from partner universities in the alliance with the same conditions for using scientific infrastructure as they do for their own researchers. This means, for example, that they will not charge commercial costs associated with the use of equipment. At the same time, we have created an interactive map of scientific and research infrastructure and expertise to facilitate the search for scientific workplaces, expert teams, and centres of expertise.”
Ivona Marková, project manager of the HEROES alliance at Mendel University in Brno, focused on cooperation between academia and businesses, particularly through challenge-based learning. "Effective cooperation between academia and the small and medium-sized enterprise sector is key to sustainable development and innovation. Challenge-Based Learning offers a practical and effective tool for linking theoretical education with the real needs of the market: joint efforts can strengthen the competitiveness of businesses while educating capable and adaptable professionals. The HEROES project, within the 'Challenge-Based Learning' Work Package, aims to create a common methodology for Challenge-Based Learning (CBL), the first version of which we created in June 2025. The goal is to create a robust yet flexible and transferable framework that reflects the complexity and diversity of higher education in Europe."
The afternoon programme concluded with a panel discussion featuring Jaroslav Miller, President of the National Accreditation Bureau for Tertiary Education, Vojtěch Tomášek, Director of the Higher Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and Roman Klepetko, Deputy Director of the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research. The panellists agreed that the European University Alliances are changing the perception of international cooperation in the Czech academic sphere - thanks to alliances, for example, there is growing demand for support for joint study programmes, greater flexibility within standard study programmes, and innovative approaches to teaching. For example, the National Accreditation Bureau for Tertiary Education has perceived a significantly higher demand for accreditations of international joint study programmes and interest in the European Degree (or its label). At the same time, however, Miller acknowledged that the accreditation framework in Czechia is not yet fully prepared for the flexible and international forms of teaching that the alliances are introducing, and the National Accreditation Bureau therefore plans, among other things, to apply for registration in the EQAR in 2026. This should make it easier for Czech HEIs to accredit joint programmes by allowing them to use the so-called European approach to quality assurance for joint study programmes.
The conference was accompanied by a workshop on negotiation in an international context, led by Francesco Marchi, a renowned expert on international negotiation. During the workshop, participants first learned the basic principles of negotiation and the rules of preparation, then tried their hand at negotiating through a simulation game, followed by a debriefing with an analysis of different approaches to negotiation. "Negotiation is like a regatta: we must not focus only on the start and finish, but we must make a diagnosis and prepare sufficiently before the negotiation itself. The negotiation is only a fraction of the whole process; we must not forget that it is followed by the implementation of the negotiated agreement and evaluation," Marchi emphasised during the workshop.
