Representatives of the Ventspils University of Applied Sciences participated in the kick-off event of the European universities Alliance COLOURS in Germany. Participation in such an important alliance opens up a wide range of international opportunities for both university staff and students. The kick-off event brought together the executives, project staff and students from all 9 partner universities and the associate partner from Ukraine. Plenary sessions, group meetings and various activities took place over the two days to work together towards the Alliance's objectives.

Andris Vaivads, Rector of Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, says: "COLOURS is a strong alliance of European regional universities, bringing together more than 120,000 students and 12,000 employees. It is a wonderful opportunity for Ventspils University of Applied Sciences to work together with European regional universities that are many times larger than our university, with very different study offers, but united by a common understanding of the importance of regional universities for national development. For Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, these will be new opportunities for the development of studies and science in both existing and new fields. For our students, this will provide additional new opportunities for international collaboration with other universities in Europe. For Ventspils city and the region, these will be new opportunities for the education of its citizens, better prepared students for the modern employment market."

Dace Štefenberga, project manager, notes: "Ventspils University College is one of the smallest universities in the COLOURS Alliance, but it can make a significant contribution to the transfer of good practice between partner countries and institutions to promote economic development in the region. Most of the European regions involved face similar challenges: depopulation, brain drain and the creation and long-term viability of knowledge-intensive enterprises. Cooperation in the exchange of knowledge and experience between the participating European regional universities, institutions and the business environment can have a positive impact on the quality of European higher education in the future. At the project kick-off meeting at the Paderborn University, the future directions and the first steps were outlined and the VUAS team represented the university and the city of Ventspils with honour."

President of the Paderborn University Prof. Dr Birgit Riegraff, in her welcoming speech, emphasised the importance of international cooperation in higher education. "Becoming part of the COLOURS Alliance is an excellent stepping stone towards an even stronger international network of education. This will have many benefits, especially for students, and of course also for research, teaching and knowledge transfer."

COLOURS aims to bring social and technological initiatives to citizens and encourage international cooperation across Europe. This may include, for example, new mobility programmes or joint study courses, the creation of joint study programmes, international research projects. Professor Torsten Meier, Vice-President for International Relations at Paderborn University, stresses that students have a particularly important role to play in achieving these goals and in actively shaping the vision of an inter-university campus’.The European Commission is funding the COLOURS Alliance with around €14 million. The COLOURS Alliance brings together nine international universities, with around 126 000 students and 12 300 staff. The aim is to strengthen long-term collaboration, increase international recognition and promote the mobility of students and researchers across Europe.

‘COLOURS’ stands for ‘COLlaborative innOvative sUstainable Regional univerSities’. Through strategic cooperation, the initiative aims to bring social and technological innovation to people across Europe. 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.