University alliance led by Paderborn University plans international campus: sites in nine European countries

Kick-off on 18 March

Register at your local university and then do international courses in various countries: the vision of a European campus is gradually becoming a reality. Since the beginning of the year, the European Commission has provided the COLOURS university alliance with a total of 14 million euros of funding, as one of a total of 50 initiatives. Under Paderborn University’s leadership, this alliance brings together nine international universities with around 126,000 students and 12,300 employees. The aim is to strengthen cooperation for the long term, increase international visibility, and promote student and researcher mobility within Europe. This also includes designing joint courses of study. What makes this special is that students are able to play an active role. Various representatives are coming to Paderborn for the kick-off event on Monday 18 March.

‘COLOURS’ stands for ‘COLlaborative innOvative sUstainable Regional univerSities’. The name says it all:  the core topics of ‘open innovation’, ‘challenge-based teaching’ and ‘impact-driven research’ are linked with regional ‘smart specialisation objectives’. In other words, the initiative is seeking to get the ball rolling for social and technological initiatives for citizens across Europe and promote strategic cooperation. This may for example include new physical and virtual mobility programmes, or creating joint courses of study. ‘Students must play a particularly major role in developing these services, to actively help shape the concept of an inter-university campus’, explains Professor Torsten Meier, Vice-President for International Relations at Paderborn University. Another aim is to translate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals into specific measures for research, teaching and technology transfer. To achieve this, the partners are developing practical models that will help their education systems serve as catalysts for environmental, digital and social change in Europe. The universities’ collaboration is being supported by 55 associate partners, who are working as disseminators within regional innovation networks.

Alongside Paderborn University as the coordinating institution, the alliance also includes Le Mans University (France), the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the University of Ferrara (Italy), Kristianstad University (Sweden), Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa (Poland), Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek (Croatia), Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (Latvia) and the University St. Kliment Ohridski Bitola (Northern Macedonia). Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Ukraine) is an associate partner of the alliance.

The opening ceremony is taking place on Monday 18 March from 4 to 6 p.m. in Paderborn University’s lecture hall G. Afterwards, all interested parties are invited to a reception in the ‘Forum’ cafeteria as part of a ‘COLOURS Market Square’, offering an opportunity to find out more about the partner universities and regions and to talk to the partners directly. You must register in advance to attend.

Further information and registration can be found on the event website: go.upb.de/COLOURS_Kick_Off.