Kick-off on 18 March
Enrol at your home university and gain international degrees in different countries: The vision of a European campus is gradually becoming a reality. Since the beginning of the year, the European Commission has been sponsoring the COLOURS university alliance as one of a total of 50 initiatives with around 14 million euros. Under the leadership of Paderborn University, the alliance brings together nine international universities with around 126,000 students and 12,300 employees. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in the long term, increase international visibility and promote the mobility of students and sponsors within Europe. This also involves the organisation of joint study programmes. The special thing about it: Students can actively participate. Representatives from all over Europe will be guests in Paderborn for the kick-off event on Monday, 18 March.
Colours stands for "COLlaborativeinnOvativesUstainable RegionaluniverSities". The name says it all: the core topics of "open innovation", "challenge-based teaching" and "impact-driven research" are combined with regional "smart specialisation goals". In other words: The initiative aims to get social and technological innovations rolling for citizens across Europe and drive them forward through strategic collaborations. This could include, for example, new physical and virtual mobility programmes or the design of joint study programmes. "Students should play a particularly strong role in the development of these programmes in order to actively shape the idea of an inter-university campus," says Prof. Dr. Torsten Meier, Vice President for International Relations at Paderborn University. Another concern is to meet the United Nations' sustainability goals with concrete measures in research, teaching and technology transfer. To this end, the partners are developing practical models to turn their education systems into catalysts for ecological, digital and social change in Europe. The universities are supported in their collaboration by 55 associated partners who are active as multipliers in regional innovation networks.
In addition to Paderborn University as the coordinating institution, the alliance includes the University of Le Mans (France), the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the University of Ferrara (Italy), the University of Kristianstad (Sweden), the Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa (Poland), the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek (Croatia), the Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (Latvia) and the University of St Kliment Ohridski Bitola (North Macedonia). Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Ukraine) is an associated partner of the alliance.
The opening ceremony will take place on Monday, 18 March, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the G lecture hall at Paderborn University. Afterwards, all interested parties are invited to a reception in the "Forum" cafeteria as part of a "COLOURS Market Square", which offers the opportunity to get to know the partner universities and regions better and to talk directly to the partners. Prior registration is required.
Further information and registration options are available on the event website: go.upb.de/COLOURS_Kick_Off.
Contact details
Davina Stiller, Advisor to the Vice President for International Relations, phone: +49 5251 60-2328 , e-mail: davina.stiller@uni-paderborn.de
