Start of the ENGAGE.EU European University

A team composed of Prorector Prof. Dr. Dirk Simons, Dr. Ursula Schlichter (EU, DAAD and international sponsors), Dr. Silvia Luber (Prospective Student Advising Center) and President Prof. Dr. Thomas Puhl had spent several months preparing the application.

Press release, 9 July 2020
Print Version (PDF)

The future of Europe will be carved by major societal challenges: digitalisation and artificial intelligence, climate change and sustainability, ageing societies and migration. Together with other leading European universities in business, economics, and social sciences University of Mannheim has formed the ENGAGE.EU alliance to provide European citizens with the set of skills and competences needed to tackle these major societal challenges. The initiative has been selected as one of 24 European Universities 2020.

ENGAGE.EU is a consortium of seven universities sharing European values and a global outlook: University of Mannheim, Germany (Coordinator), Luiss Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (Italy), NHH Norwegian School of Economics (Norway), Tilburg University (The Netherlands), University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria), University Toulouse 1 Capitole (France), and WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria). All institutions together are currently an academic home to over 100,000 students, academics and staff. The alliance will exploit the unique synergies of its excellent members, taking existing collaborations to a new dimension guided by a joint approach and a common goal, where each university brings its unique perspective shaped by its academic areas of specialisation as well as geographical and economic context.

ENGAGE.EU aims to enable its learners to act as socially engaged European citizens and to have impact on society at large. Building on a solid background in the social sciences, the alliance is based on a comprehensive approach, following three interconnected paths: Engaged Learning, Engaged Research and Innovation and Engaged in Society. More specifically, the partner universities pursue the goal of developing new joint courses and teaching formats addressing current, future-oriented topics. These offers shall not only involve the institutions’ actual students, but also interested learners from society in general. In research, among other things, a think tank is intended to enrich the structural cooperation between researchers, learners and other alliance actors. Finally, ENGAGE.EU Labs enable universities to exchange ideas with stakeholders from civil society and business and open up space for innovations.

Professor Thomas Puhl, President of the University of Mannheim, said: “I am extremely happy and proud to see that the strategic alliance initiated and led by the University ofMannheim has been selected as one of the 24 new European Universities today. All seven institutions forming ENGAGE.EU are highly committed to tackling important societal challenges for Europe. These challenges we can only solve together. The EU grant also confirms that our alliance is leading in the fields of economic and social sciences in Europe and beyond.”

Marco Rupp from the University of Mannheim, who coordinated the students input for ENGAGE.EU, said: “The Alliance will connect about 100.000 students from seven institutions. Our visions are essential for ENGAGE.EU. We have ambitions to develop shared learning initiatives, where students can collaborate with each other as well as with society, both physically and in digital formats.”

The ENGAGE.EU universities look forward to working together in this new European University. It will represent a unique opportunity to educate and inspire a new generation of citizens that will contribute to make Europe a global referent in how to tackle societal challenges.

European Commission's press release: https://ec.europa.eu/education/news/european-universities-results-second-call_en

More about ENGAGE.EU: http://engageuniversity.eu/

The European University Initiative

The European Universities are an initiative within the Erasmus program of the European Union with the goal of establishing new standards of cooperation between higher education institutions. European Universities are intended to act as models of good practice to further increase the quality, international competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education.

Contact:
Linda Schädler
Head of Communications
University of Mannheim
Phone: +49 (0) 621 181 -1434
E-Mail: schaedlermail-uni-mannheim.de