University Alliance Research Articles

New pedagogical tools for vaccine education: preparing future healthcare workers for the next pandemic.

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is an issue for healthcare students, influenced by safety concerns and misinformation. The need for better communication training and understanding sociocultural factors in VH was highlighted in a European University Alliance seminar. Practical exercises like simulation role-playing, interprofessional collaboration, and digital literacy may improve vaccine education.

Strengthening university capacity in regional innovation ecosystem through the participation in the European Universities initiative

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore how participation in the strategic partnerships of the European University Alliances (EUAs) facilitates university capacity in regional development. The study utilizes the Quadruple Helix theoretical model and contributes to the literature on transnational university alliances in regional innovation ecosystems. A qualitative analysis of policy documents, media reports on EUA developments, alliance goals, and university implementation strategies is conducted within the context of Lithuanian higher education. In Lithuania’s case, the primary rationale for participating in the EU initiative is both academic and economic. Furthermore, it is framed as addressing higher education challenges such as a low internationalization level, a mismatch between human capital and labour market needs, and the attractiveness of higher education. To achieve the strategic goals of the alliances, universities build networks including cross-sectoral linkages and engage in co-creation activities. The expanded and deepened interactions among different organizational spheres (helices) aim to foster innovation in national HE policy, strengthen university capacity through organizational innovation, and re-design teaching and research to drive social and economic transformations.

The Demands and Paradoxes of the Integration Pursuit of University Alliances in Differentiated Regional Alliances: Taking the ASEAN University Alliance as an Example to Compare with the European Union

The Demands and Paradoxes of the Integration Pursuit of University Alliances in Differentiated Regional Alliances: Taking the ASEAN University Alliance as an Example to Compare with the European Union

Usage of (federated) Learning Management Systems in European University Alliances

In today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, European universities are increasingly relying on digital technologies for collaboration and learning. European Universities, as transnational alliances, aim to reshape higher education by fostering academic exchange and innovation across borders. With over 40 alliances in existence, enhancing virtual mobility and exchange through interconnected learning infrastructures has become imperative. This paper provides insights into Learning Management System (LMS) adoption within European alliances, focusing on the Unite! alliance as a case study. While Unite! demonstrates successful implementation of Moodle as its central LMS, challenges persist in achieving uniformity across all partners. A desktop analysis of European alliances reveals that Moodle might be the most often used LMS in February 2023. A description of the LMS implementation within the Unite! analysis shows as well that a majority uses Moodle – at least as a second LMS. So, although the decision for a federated LMS based on Moodle might be the right one, these results as well indicate the need for tailored technical solutions for future developments for some partners and disparities in lecturers‘ and students‘ concerning a Moodle so that pre-emptive measures to ensure equitable participation are important. Despite these challenges, Unite!'s experience underscores the potential of Moodle as a widely adopted platform, prompting further exploration into solutions like LTI integration.

Undergraduate Degree in Medical Data Science: A Conceptual Framework.

The undergraduate degree program in medical data science aims to train future data scientists with a medical lens to tackle healthcare challenges using a data-driven approach. The program is a collaborative effort within the Berlin University Alliance, addressing the lack of healthcare-focused data science education in Berlin and Germany. The curriculum covers mathematics, informatics, medical informatics, and medicine, featuring diverse didactic formats. Graduates will be equipped to lead data science and digital transformation projects in healthcare.

Positive Play

This book results from an initiative by the European university consortium EUGLOH - European University Alliance for Global Health - between the University of Porto, Portugal (U.P.), and the University of the Arctic, Norway (UiT). To support the activity consisting of a three-day masterclass and workshop at UiT, designated as “Tromsø Idea Camp 2024 - Developing ideas through co-creation using human-centred design,” which had as its motto: . “Identify the needs and expectations of Vardesenteret’s patients before, during, and after treatment, considering their and volunteers’ points of view and creating projectual answers that foster empathy and communication”, a handbook was created, which later formed the basis of this book. It has three sections dedicated to Person-Centred Design in the Context of Health and Well-being. The first section— ”Reported Experience”, — Relates to the doctoral project “Ludic Activities in Health Context: An Anorexia Nervosa Case in the Hospital Environment,” which systematizes Ludic methods and tools created in and for a clinical context to support the treatment and monitoring of Anorexia Nervosa. Part of the project stems from collaborative work with São João Central Hospital, Portugal, in a group dedicated to treating eating disorders. The second section - “Documented Experience” — Explores the concept of Positive Play, coined by Giesteira, B., Cardoso, P., and Peçaibes, V. in various papers and book chapters from 2021 onwards. It presents a group of methods and tools created by the authors in recent years, such as the SEED Toolkit - “SomaEsthetics for Enabling Designers” (Giesteira, B. 2023) and the ANgame Collab (Cardoso, P., Peçaibes, V., Giesteira, B. 2022). The first tool aims to work on the concept of Somaesthetics, promoting empathy and contributing to identifying feelings and sensations interdependent on body activities and movements. The second tool aims to mediate playful sessions of Participatory Design, especially in the ‘user research’ phase. Other tools and methods were selected because, based on the aforementioned authors’ experience, they are most suitable for applied research in Health Technology Design. The third section - “Lived Experience” — Records the three days of the workshop dedicated to the themes: “Emotional Design and Somaesthetics”; “Human-Centered and Participatory Design”; “Ideation, Lateral Thinking, and Prototype.” In addition to the aforementioned themes, the different phases of development of the participants' projects from the various universities of the EUGLOH university consortium are recorded, which, in a Participatory Design approach, involved the collaboration of volunteers and oncology patients from Vardesenteret. This section shares the tools used to support each phase of product or service design and the final results of the low-fidelity prototypes.

International Project Management – Another Challenge for Librarians. How Well Prepared Are We for This? A Case Study of the TRAIN4EU Project

The European Universities Initiative (EUI) was established in 2017. Its aim is to strengthen strategic partnerships between higher education institutions across the EU by building networks of universities. At the end of 2023, there were already 50 European University Alliances gathering 430 higher education (HE) institutions. In each of these Alliances, academic libraries are members, too. These libraries are already involved in intra-alliance projects, and these alliances will probably happen more often due to the EU’s project-driven approach. This practice paper is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first attempt to describe another challenge that European academic libraries currently face i.e., project management practice. The alliance partner universities operate under distinct national laws and institutional practices, making it challenging to easily align them for effective cross-university collaborations. Familiarity with the theoretical principles of EU project management and project management methodology greatly facilitates the preparation of the proposal and the work of the project. It also allows more effective management of the project as a whole or its individual parts. This paper maps the challenges that work in international projects brings and provides suggestions on how EUI libraries can utilize project management techniques, while also aiming at showing the paths to facilitate cooperation. Drawing from an analysis of the literature on project management that might apply in library-led projects to strengthen communities of purpose, the paper is based on the example of the work experience on the project TRAIN4EU, that was co-led by the academic librarians from the University of Warsaw Library, Poland, and run by 4EU + universities. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations based on TRAIN4EU practices, lessons learned, as well as pitfalls to avoid.

Developing a societal impact evaluation framework for sustainable European University Alliances

European University alliances, formally introduced in 2019, are rapidly expanding, as more than 400 million euros have been dedicated in 2023 by the European Commission to foster international collaborations to promote new forms of development within and beyond university communities. By undertaking interventionist research on UNITA – Universitas Montium, one of the largest European alliances, representing 160.000 students, this paper aims to illustrate how a university alliance is tasked with developing an internal assessment methodology to account for the societal benefits created by the project for the academic and civil communities. The elaboration of the assessment tool to assess the contribution to higher education and societal sustainable communities has brought researchers to discover etic and emic implications, revealing the existence of an accountability layer in which the international alliance directly engages with rural and mountain communities in marginalized areas. This research marks a significant advancement in the field of higher education sustainability, providing both a novel analytical perspective on the benefits of university alliances for the development of local sustainable communities and a methodological tool for their assessment.

Connected Learning Communities

Abstract This article reports on the first results of the educational model piloted in EUTOPIA, a transnational university alliance established under the European University initiative. We discuss the theoretical underpinnings and core principles of our model which seeks to enable students, academics and societal partners to form Connected Learning Communities through enhancing existing learning activities and practices in teaching and learning. We elaborate on the value added of our model for developing a diverse portfolio of activities and a dynamic structure that has the potential to offer international learning opportunities to a large and diverse group of students, academic staff and societal partners. We close the article with recommendations for the results of European University Alliance pilots to reach their full innovation potential.

Editorial

This issue of Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences features authors from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Argentina, Ecuador and Norway. They write about the creation of a transnational university alliance and its signature approach to education, the evolution of a faculty writing group, introducing students to computer modelling and simulation research methods, the value of reading ethnographies in preparation for fieldwork, teaching and learning criminological theory and organising paired discussions in class.

Evaluating approaches to identifying research supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) challenge the global community to build a world where no one is left behind. Recognizing that research plays a fundamental part in supporting these goals, attempts have been made to classify research publications according to their relevance in supporting each of the UN’s SDGs. In this paper, we outline the methodology that we followed when mapping research articles to SDGs and which is adopted by Times Higher Education in its Social Impact rankings. We compare our solution with other existing queries and models mapping research papers to SDGs. We also discuss various aspects in which the methodology can be improved and generalized to other types of content apart from research articles. The results presented in this paper are the outcome of the SDG Research Mapping Initiative, which was established as a partnership between the University of Southern Denmark, the Aurora European Universities Alliance (represented by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), the University of Auckland, and Elsevier to bring together broad expertise and share best practices on identifying research contributions to UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test sensitivity and viral load in newly symptomatic hospital employees in Berlin, Germany, December, 2020 to February, 2022: an observational study

Evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants and changing levels of pre-existing immunity require re-evaluation of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) performance. We investigated possible associations between Ag-RDT sensitivity and various potential influencing factors, such as immunisation status and viral variant, in symptomatic hospital employees. In this observational study, RT-PCR, Ag-RDT, and symptom-specific data were collected at three SARS-CoV-2 test centres for employees of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin hospital (Berlin, Germany). Employees reporting SARS-CoV-2-like symptoms, those at an increased risk of infection (eg, due to contact with an infected person), those testing positive in a previous self-administered Ag-RDT, or those seeking release-testing to return to work at least 7 days after a positive RT-PCR test were eligible for combined testing by RT-PCR and Ag-RDT. Only data from individuals with an ongoing SARS-CoV-2 infection as assessed by RT-PCR were used for further analysis. Bayesian regression analyses were done to evaluate possible differences in viral load and Ag-RDT sensitivity according to viral variant and immunisation status (previous vaccination or recovery from infection), using data from first RT-PCR positive samples in an infection. A comprehensive logistic regression analysis was used to investigate potential concomitant associations between Ag-RDT sensitivity and level of pre-existing immunity, time post symptom onset, viral load, gender, age, and Ag-RDT device. Ag-RDT performance was also compared between supernatants from cell cultures infected with the omicron variant of concern (VOC) or the wild-type strain (pre-VOC). Between Nov 30, 2020 and Feb 11, 2022, a total of 14 773 samples from 7675 employees were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by both RT-PCR and Ag-RDT. We found a negative association between immunisation status and Ag-RDT sensitivity in symptomatic employees, with an observed sensitivity of 82% (94% highest posterior density interval [HPDI] 78-86) in immunologically naive participants compared with 73% (68-78) in multiply immunised individuals (ie, those with at least two vaccinations or recoveries from infection) and median log10 viral loads of 7·02 (IQR 5·83-8·07) and 8·08 (6·80-8·89), respectively. The dominant viral variant changed several times during the study period, from the pre-VOC period (sensitivity 80% [94% HPDI 75-85] in symptomatic participants) through the alpha variant (82% [70-94]), delta variant (75% [69-82]), and omicron variant (72% [65-79]) waves, concomitantly with a steep increase in vaccination coverage in our dataset. In a comparison of Ag-RDT performance on cell culture supernatants, we found no difference between the wild-type and omicron viral variants. On the basis of our findings and data from other studies, we hypothesise that the observed reduction in clinical Ag-RDT sensitivity, despite higher SARS-CoV-2 RNA loads, is due to shorter incubation times later in our study period resulting from increased population immunity or changes in immune response dynamics caused by later SARS-CoV-2 VOCs. Berlin University Alliance, German Ministry of Education and Research, the EU (Projects EU4Health and ReCoVer), and the Berlin Institute of Health.

A New Attempt at Social Innovation Curriculum : The Design and Operation of ‘Urban Innovation Project (Capstone Design)’ by a PrivatePublic-Academic Partnership

The purpose of this study is to examine the design and operation of the private-public-academic partnership Social Innovation Liberal Arts Curriculum. This initiative involves collaboration between universities, local governments, companies, and NGOs local governments, companies, NGOs, and universities to address community problems and create positive change. The ‘Urban Innovation Project (Capstone Design)’ class was developed to operate the Urban Innovation School, which is a collaborative urban regeneration project involving Seoul Women's University, Habitat for Korea, and POSCO E&C (formerly known as POSCO Engineering & Construction). The project, initiated in 2020, aims to foster private-public-academic partnership and resident participation. While maintaining the purpose and benefits of the current university alliance program, the course was developed as a three-credit liberal arts curriculum. It utilized the inter-university credit exchange method to offer a structured curriculum on a semester-by-semester basis. The aim was to enhance students' engagement in the project, elevate their performance, and acknowledge their participation efforts by granting credits. The main content is based on the implementation of the project by a team organized by topic. It consists of online lectures, on-site activities for 3 days and 2 nights, expert advice, resident participation activities, and a final output presentation. In the 2023 academic year, a total of 49 students from 8 universities participated in the first semester of the program. In order to enhance the educational and social impact of the program, it is necessary to expand the number of universities that offer and operate classes in the future. Additionally, the project topics should be expanded from solely focusing on urban regeneration to encompassing urban issues as a whole. The ‘Urban Innovation Project (Capstone Design)’ class, which is based on private-public-academic partnership and credit exchange between universities, will be able to propose useful and meaningful implications for the social innovation curriculum. This curriculum aims to solve problems and create a positive impact through the connection and collaboration of various actors and sectors.

Sustainability Reporting and International Rankings in Higher Education: A Case of the University of Split, Croatia

We offer practical, case-based experiences on sustainability reporting in higher education institutions (HEIs), with a focus on the integration of sustainability activities into strategic planning and quality management. A proposed approach is based on the experience of the University of Split, Croatia, and the lessons learned from the SEA-EU University Alliance. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our model emphasizes the active engagement of stakeholders and the continuous collection and review of sustainability data. In addition, we propose to automate the collection and dissemination of sustainability research findings through the implementation of a Current Research Information System (CRIS). Our case study provides a roadmap for improving sustainability performance and reporting. The experience of the University of Split (Croatia) could be helpful and generalizable to a number of universities with an intermediate level of maturity in sustainability management and reporting, trying to improve their university rankings.

Elevating Academic Advising: Natural Language Processing of Student Reviews

Academic advising is often pivotal in shaping students’ educational experiences and choices. This study leverages natural language processing to quantitatively evaluate reviews of academic advisors, aiming to provide actionable insights on key feedback phrases and demographic factors for enhancing advising services. This analysis encompassed a comprehensive evaluation of 1151 reviews of undergraduate students for academic advisors, which were collected within a European University alliance consisting of five universities, offering a diverse pool of feedback from a wide range of academic interactions. Employing sentiment analysis powered by artificial intelligence, we computed compound sentiment scores for each academic advisor’s reviews. Subsequently, statistical analyses were conducted to provide insights into how demographic factors may or may not influence students’ sentiment and evaluations of academic advisory services. The results indicated that advisor’s gender had no substantial influence on the sentiment of the reviews. On the contrary, the academic advisors’ age showed a notable impact, with younger advisors surprisingly receiving more favorable evaluations. Word frequency analyses, both for positive and negative expressions, were also performed to contextualize the language used in describing academic advisors. The prevalent word combinations in reviews of highly rated academic advisors emphasized attributes like empathy, approachability, and effectiveness in guiding students towards achieving their academic goals. Conversely, advisors with less favorable reviews were often perceived as inadequate in addressing students’ concerns related to their academic journey, revealing persistent challenges in the student–advisor interaction that impacted their evaluation. This analysis of academic advisor reviews contributes to the body of literature by highlighting the significance of managing student expectations and enhancing advisor skills and qualities to foster positive interactions and academic success.

Von unterschiedlichen Perspektiven zu einheitlichen Strategien: Europäische Hochschulallianzen und die Entwicklung anpassungsfähiger Konzepte für die Wissenschaftskommunikation

AbstractCommunicating scientific subjects to non-academic, non-specialist, or very young audiences using various event formats (lecture series, panel discussions, science slams, Children’s Universities, Citizen Universities, etc.) is a key aspect of science communication. In the EURECA-PRO University Alliance, the implementation of these kinds of formats will be given greater focus at all institutions to make significant topics accessible in ways that go beyond the institutional walls of the universities.To this end, approaches are being developed and tested to identify and reduce existing hurdles for the public. At the same time, in an international structure such as EURECA-PRO, it is essential to know individual frameworks to ensure that measures promoting a uniform strategy can be implemented by everyone.In order to develop adaptable strategies for universities with different thematic focuses and locations in Europe, certain conditions for success must be identified and considered. In addition to the needs and resources of target groups, the requirements, and opportunities of the universities—as dictated by their respective circumstances—must also be considered. Using the examples of the EURECA-PRO partners Technical University of Crete in Chania (TUC), Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice (SUT), and Montanuniversität Leoben (MUL), challenges and results will be discussed.

Towards Common European Quality Standards: Evaluation of Study Programmes and Educational Offerings in European Alliances

Evaluation of education is one of key tasks for universities, whether as part of approval processes, accreditation, or ongoing assessment. The EURECA-PRO European university alliance is developing new study programmes, courses, and modules which require evaluation procedures for use by all partner universities. Considering the current EU quality assurance standards and the current evaluation procedures in place at partner universities, an analysis for a roadmap to an educational evaluation system has been conducted and from this a EURECA-PRO evaluation framework has been devised. This framework is formed of three cycles, individual course/module, semester, and whole programme and considers input from key stakeholders: programme management, study deans, teachers, and learners.

DESIGNING THE PROCESS OF ACADEMIC RECOGNITION – IMPLEMENTING “BRICOLAGE” AS A METHODOLOGICAL TOOL TO ANALYZE A DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IN THE ULYSSEUS EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE

European Universities Initiative is transforming the landscape of European higher education in a fundamental way with the establishment of transnational, strategic alliances. In view of the overarching objectives of the European Higher Education Area, new alliances contribute to the consolidation of current best practices in education, research and innovation, and enable novel ways of cooperation to enhance them even more. Alongside the optimistic perspectives opening up with the initiative, alliances also face a number of administrative and pedagogical challenges. Fulfilling the expectations of the European Commission in terms of facilitating more flexible study pathways and of adopting transparent practices in academic recognition is one acute topic that needs to be addressed in every alliance: recognition for both access and for advancement needs thorough reconsideration in the new educational ecosystem. The article presents a pragmatic contribution by unfolding a recent development case from the Ulysseus European University Alliance. It describes an intensive process of designing an alliance-level framework agreement for academic recognition, with supporting documents, to enable more functional processes in alignment with the main European policy papers such as the Lisbon Recognition Convention (1997) and taking into account recent studies where hindrances and developments in academic recognition are discussed and analyzed. The case process is articulated methodologically with the framework of bricolage theory (Matthews 2019) that enables a synchronic analysis of the constituents and the outcomes of the process. Pragmatic recommendations are based on the post-hoc analysis of the case where a transdisciplinary working group achieved a significant administrative step forward in alliance cooperation.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0018/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Participatory curriculum development: The case of EUTOPIA, a European university alliance

AbstractThis paper reports on a model for participatory curriculum development that builds on a ‘connected learning communities’ (CLC) approach. We describe and analyse the trajectory of six CLC‐cases using a framework informed by Social Practice Theory (SPT). The activities we report on took place during the first pilot year (2020–2021) of a transnational University Alliance involving six European universities. Data were drawn from document analysis, direct observations and ongoing dialogue with students and staff involved in the CLCs. Our findings illustrate the affordances of building on existing practice for curriculum development in international contexts and point out the importance of well‐equipped collaborative environments that encourage critical analysis and active experimentation. We found that the CLC model and SPT framework are helpful contributions in the field of curriculum development and argue that connected curriculum‐making approaches help shape versatile environments that can effectively transform and enhance educational provisions, experiences and outcomes.

RATIONALITY ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITY BRAND IMPLEMENTATION PATH

Brand is a socio-economic phenomenon. Brand is the product of the development of commodity economy to a certain stage. The generation of brand marks the maturity of the concept in the process of commodity exchange. To simply define a brand, it refers to a name, symbol, symbol or design of a seller or service, highlighting its competitive advantage and being distinguished from its competitors. In tandem with trends toward the popularization, marketization, and internationalization of higher education, brand marketing emerged in the field of higher education in the 1980s. In addition, with improvements in social welfare and new forms of public management, the commercialization and marketization of higher education have attracted increasing attention. The definition of the university brand can be described as that the university brand is the organic combination of representation information (name, noun, mark or design) and profound connotation (value, culture, personality and spirit), so that it is distinguished from competitors and recognized by consumers. Brand strategy is the overall planning and implementation of brand building and future development carried out by brand institutions under the guidance of brand strategic thinking based on their own conditions and analysis of the current situation and future trends of the external competitive environment. The essence of brand strategy is to shape the core expertise of the company, thereby ensuring its long-term development. Brand strategy is to establish a corporate strategy centered on building a strong brand. The core of raising brand building to the business strategy of a company lies in establishing a distinctive brand identity. Through the analysis of the actual situation and future trend of the external competitive environment, according to the guidance of its own conditions, the university conducts the overall planning and implementation of the future development of the university under the guidance of brand strategic thought. The C9 Alliance is the first university alliance between top universities in China. The alliance includes nine universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi'an Jiaotong University and Harbin Institute of Technology. Its development model, development path, talent training and other aspects are the target of many Chinese universities. Centering on the connotation of university brand, this paper analyzes the brand implementation road of "C9 Alliance" university to prove the rationality of the model observation point proposed in this paper, and on this basis, puts forward reference suggestions on the implementation path of ordinary undergraduate university brand.