University of Warwick: Three universities join EUTOPIA

The EUTOPIA European University has announced its enlargement with three leading universities joining the consortium: Università Ca’Foscari Venezia (Italy), Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal).

The enlargement ceremony on September 16, 2021, was hosted at the Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium’s Residence in the presence of key European and local stakeholders.

This expansion reflects the desire of the EUTOPIA universities to broaden, widen, and deepen their efforts to strengthen their complementary capabilities and to offer their students, staff, and research communities a more comprehensive, connected range of international and intercultural opportunities.

The EUTOPIA universities are student-centred, working towards social cohesion by striving for excellence and inclusion, transcending national and educational boundaries to develop innovative pedagogical models, and advancing the movement of people and ideas. Furthermore, they are committed to our communities, building on our place-making strengths to foster urban and regional development, ultimately preparing our students, staff, and communities to be empowered European citizens in today’s disruptive world.

They share common values: integrity, academic freedom, knowledge sharing with society, and openness to the international community.

Each of the three new universities joining EUTOPIA brings complementary strengths that will reinforce and drive the alliance’s mission forward.

Originally established as Italy’s first business school in 1868, CA’ FOSCARI UNIVERSITY OF VENICE is a multidisciplinary institution offering a wide range of study programmes in economics and management, modern languages, the humanities, and sciences. Today, the university is also exploring new areas of research by focusing on climate change, digital and public humanities, environmental humanities, digital transformation and social innovation and nanoscience. Ca’ Foscari University is currently fourth in Europe for the number of European Marie Curie fellows attracted, having been in the top ten for the last four years. It has risen in the QSWorld University Rankings by Subject thanks to its excellent results in Classics (top 50 in the world), Modern Languages (59th), History (among the best 150 universities worldwide), Linguistics (among the best 200), Economics & Econometrics (200th), and Geography (among the best 200).

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick (one of the founders of EUTOPIA), Professor Stuart Croft, stated:

“Today is a really important milestone, a great achievement for EUTOPIA. From its inception, our alliance of universities has brought together students, researchers, and staff from across our continent to modernise education and meet the needs of the 21st century. In welcoming our new partners to the alliance, EUTOPIA is not only strengthening our commitment to this vision but also providing fresh opportunities to study and work across Europe to the Warwick community, and new links to Europe for our city and region.”

The Rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Tiziana Lippiello, stated:

“With this initiative, our university, together with Technische Universität Dresden and Nova University Lisbon, joins the EUTOPIA network. We look forward to collaborating under the banner of research, internationalisation and student mobility and innovative activities. The challenges of EUTOPIA have always been Ca’ Foscari’s challenges, as well. I believe that only the sharing of knowledge, partnership and cooperation among scholars can truly contribute to facing the global challenges of our time, from environmental issues to social and economic inequality, from the impact of technology and digitisation to the management of innovation. Ca’ Foscari firmly believes in the objectives and in the mission of this project, and we are ready to make our contribution to its development.”

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN (TUD) is one of the largest technical universities in Germany and one of the leading and most dynamic universities nationwide. As a comprehensive university with 17 faculties in five Schools, it offers a wide variety of 124-degree programs and covers a broad research spectrum. Its research foci are Health Sciences, Biomedicine & Bioengineering, Information Technology & Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Smart Materials & Structures, Energy, Mobility & Environment, and Culture & Societal Change.

Prof. Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of Technische Universität Dresden, sees the great potential of this European Alliance:

“With our involvement in the EUTOPIA European University community, we expand our opportunities for shaping a European educational space, joint European and cross-institutional teaching projects and advance the Europeanization of our teaching programs. Also, student, lecturers, researcher and staff mobility across Europe is greatly facilitated, as is the expansion of funding programmes for postdocs. And last but not least, joint applications with our EUTOPIA partners open up advantages when competing for European research funding. Within EUTOPIA we would like to bring to bear the innovative power of science to master the big challenges of the 21st century such as the climate crisis.”

NOVA UNIVERSITY LISBON was founded in 1973 endorsing the European values of democracy, respect for human right, freedom, tolerance, and more, as the European university that it is proud to be. Its main characteristics are the emphasis on sustainability, interdisciplinarity and innovation. Its areas of expertise range from Medicine to Economics, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities. NOVA is currently in the top 14 among young European universities effectively founded less than 50 years ago, leading prominently at national level (Times Higher Education World University Rankings – Young), and its motto is to be a global and civic university.

Prof. João Sáàgua, Rector of NOVA University Lisbon, declared about the enlargement:

“Being part of this alliance will bring great opportunities to collaborate with our European partners in order to develop our mission of being a global and civic university. For NOVA this means to be a high international profile, student centred institution, that serves society through knowledge and addresses today’s global and local challenges in innovative and impactful ways. We expect to bring our partners, among other things, new routes for cooperation not only within the EU but also with Portuguese speaking countries with which NOVA has a longstanding relation.”

EUTOPIA acts as an international gateway for the exchange of knowledge and cultures and is delighted to additionally announce its association with four universities beyond Europe: Université Internationale de Rabat (Morocco), Kyungpook National University (South Korea), Monash University (Australia), and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). This broader, more diverse network of partnerships will allow us to better address global challenges. EUTOPIA is today a more robust alliance, with a greater impact on society, opening the prospect of a more diverse and attractive inter-university campus.