UniGR | Université de la Grande Région

Europe between universities: territories and identities in university alliances



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On June 27, 2023, the Université de la Grande Région (UniGR) - to which the Université de Liège belongs - and the Université du Luxembourg organized the closing event of the Erasmus+ "EurIdentity Certificate" project and the Annual Conference on Higher Education and Research in the Grande Région, on the Belval campus in Esch-sur-Alzette. 

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eachers, students and university officials took to the podium during the morning to present the new EurIdentity Certificate, created jointly by the seven UniGR partner institutions. Starting in the winter semester 2023/2024, this additional qualification will enable all students, regardless of their discipline, to acquire basic European knowledge and intercultural skills.

Cyryl Yeroshkin, a student at the University of Silesia (Poland) and Erasmus+ student at Saarland University, describes his experience: "For me, studying without borders in Europe means freedom, diversity and international networking, which I was able to experience through the EurIdentity Certificate. As well as learning about Europe, I was also able to make new contacts in the Greater Region.

The conference addressed the challenges and best practices involved in the joint development and implementation of this unique certificate. According to Prof. Jäckel, President of the University of the Greater Region and the University of Trier: "It is thanks to the mutual trust and long tradition of cooperation between the UniGR partner universities that we have succeeded, in the space of three years, in meeting the pedagogical, technological and administrative challenges involved in creating this certificate, which is now an exemplary course for European university alliances".

The afternoon was devoted to the regional impact of European universities and similar university alliances, as part of the second edition of the Greater Region's Annual Conference on Higher Education and Research. The presidents and vice-presidents of six European university alliances in which Greater Region and Upper Rhine universities participate (UNIC, Transform4Europe, UNIVERSEH, EURECA-PRO, EUCOR and UniGR) discussed the challenges and assets of these university groupings for regional development.

Find out more about the Euridentity certificate

About UniGR

The University of the Greater Region is an innovative university consortium comprising the following universities: Kaiserslautern-Landau (D), Liège (B), Lorraine (F), Luxembourg (LU), Saarland (D), Trier (D) and htw saar (D) as an associate partner. Cooperation between the seven higher education and research establishments of the Grande Région began in 2008 as part of a European project. Since 2015, the grouping has had its own legal structure, enabling it to carry out projects on behalf of its members and ensure joint coordination of cooperation.

UniGR's main objective is to train generations of committed Europeans by creating study and research conditions focused on mobility between partner universities, scientific disciplines and language skills. The UniGR is also developing its international profile by focusing on targeted fields to meet certain territorial and societal challenges of the Greater Region. This specialization takes the form of "Interdisciplinary Centers of Expertise". The first interdisciplinary centre of expertise is UniGR-Center for Border Studies, which specializes in border studies. Its second centre, UniGR-CIRKLA, is dedicated to metals and materials in a circular economy

Your contact at ULiège

Florence Hautekeer

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