8 leading universities from all over Europe join forces and create a European Civic University

A network creating links across and beyond Europe

With the ambition to create an integrated university space where students, academics, researchers and staff move and collaborate as freely as in their institution of origin, 8 Universities have decided to create a European Civic University together: Aix Marseille Université (France), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece), University of Bucharest (Romania), Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain), Sapienza Università di Roma (Italia), Stockholms Universitet (Sweden), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Germany).

This alliance will bring together some 384.000 students and 55.000 staff members.  It will foster multilingualism by mixing native speakers in the English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish languages.

Our European Civic University will create a space for innovative and responsible teaching, research, cultural exchanges and citizen action within Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea, while engaging with the World, its inhabitants and its institutions.

A project oriented towards mobility, multilingualism and citizen engagement

Our project aims to promote European values, cultures and citizenship among new generations of students. It will promote innovative and integrated cooperation and action, regardless of borders, languages or academic disciplines. It will act both locally and globally, while challenging social, economic or environmental issues.

This strong commitment will contribute to the growth and multiplication of opportunities on every level for all partner universities and for Europe as a whole. Our European Civic University is meant as a key instrument towards a renewal of the European integration process.

Our common focus will include involvement in the city and the relations with the socio-economic and cultural actors of the territory. We will join our resources in both teaching and research to address major challenges of today and tomorrow, i.e. urbanization, energy and climate change, ageing, cultural heritage and pedagogic priorities like fairer opportunities for any student from any background at higher education level or new ways of learning in the digital world.

Through our commitment to face these essential challenges, we have to assert ourselves as a bridge of Europe toward the South.