On 24 January 2025, the Report on the Outcomes and Transformational Potential of the European Universities Initiative has been published by the European Commission. It is a token of proof of the work of alliances in the past years, presenting the strengths, achievements and the progress of the European Universities initiative so far. It also identifies remaining aspects to be addressed and provides policy orientations to sustain success of the initiative in the long-term.

Being mentioned 97 times throughout the report, shows the impressive share and number of best practices and achievements of ECIU University. The four main success stories that are highlighted with a dedicated box explaining the practice, are about ECIU’s digital platform and XR Campus (an example of a shared resource and facility, box 12, p. 133), our micro-credentials journey (an example of joint education provision and mobility, box 45, p. 187), our Gender Equality and Diversity Strategy (an example of impact on society and economy, box 57, p. 206), and our Challenges and Local Partnership Areas (another example of impact on society and economy, box 63, p. 217). These are all examples we are very proud of.

The report shows a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data, best practices and serves as a benchmark how ECIU University performs compared to other alliances. In the field of new joint educational activities offered by the alliances Table 5 (page 166) shows that ECIU University developed 82% (namely 355) of all (431) short courses leading to micro-credentials, and 27% (namely 141) of all (528) challenges that were offered by the 39 alliances that were studied for this report (data is from October 2023).

The report shows the success of the European University Initiative: 65 European University Alliances bringing together >570 higher education institutions from 35 countries, including all 27 EU Member States and teaming up with 2.200 associated partners. It also highlights the relevant references to the initiative that were made in recent landmark reports, about the importance of the initiative for European competitiveness like Draghi, Letta and Heitor.

The report concludes that further policy and funding support is needed for alliances to achieve their ambitious goals. Alliances, Member States and the European Commission are recommended to join forces, e.g. towards an investment pathway aiming to offer a long-term comprehensive funding approach for the European Universities alliances for the financial programming period 2028-2034, complementing the core educational dimension funded under Erasmus+ with support across all alliances’ other missions, seeking synergies with different EU instruments, as well as with national and regional funding.

In terms of policy, the European Commission is supporting Member States to pursue work at national level continue to strive for full implementation of the Council Recommendations supporting transnational cooperation in higher education.

Further information can be found in a news item and on the Commission’s European Universities webpage. You can also find updated alliance factsheets here.

© of the picture: European Union, 2023