In June, the Principal co-wrote an opinion piece on the importance of international partnerships during troubled times. With the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the imminent end to the Brexit transition period, the challenges for the UK’s HE sector are significant but thankfully the depths of the University’s international partnerships are more so.
The article featured in national press across eight European countries and was written alongside University Rectors from Una Europa member universities. The University joined the Una Europa Alliance in February 2019 and in doing so, made a commitment to work with member universities to deliver an ambitious output, the European University of the Future. Academics from Edinburgh in the areas of European Studies, One Health, Sustainability, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and Cultural Heritage are co-developing joint programmes, establishing a joint research and innovation strategy, and developing and testing virtual mobility initiatives all in collaboration with University partners based in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Bologna, Helsinki, Krakow and Leuven.
The Alliance is hosting several digital events this month as part of their first ‘UNA Europa Talk’ series. Yesterday, the University of Edinburgh hosted a seminar on the impacts of Covid-19. The seminar coincided with the World One Health Congress and saw scientists from Finland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK share their scientific insights on the pandemic.
Later today, 4 November, the UNA Europa community will livestream a discussion for staff and students with digitisation experts from Helsinki, Krakow, Leuven and Berlin. ‘Resistance is futile. You will be digitalized!’ will explore the place of digital processes in the future of academia. As the current situation has highlighted, the use of digital technologies certainly isn’t going anywhere, so this should be a fascinating and lively discussion. The event will be streamed from 3:30pm to 5:30pm here.
These will be the first of many Una Europa events with an Una Europa Student Congress planned for early December. To learn more about the exciting and innovative opportunities that Una Europa membership will provide for University students and staff, regardless of the challenges ahead, sign up for regular newsletters or email the Europe Regional team within Edinburgh Global at una.europa@ed.ac.uk to get involved.