WUT receives a very high rating in the European Union’s "European Universities" competition
The European Commission has selected 24 winners of the 2nd "European Universities" competition, who will receive EUR 5 million over the next three years for the strategic development of their collaboration.
Sixty-two university consortia entered the second "European Universities" competition. Twenty-four university networks were selected. The list of winners includes the ENHANCE consortium (European Universities of Technology Alliance) with the Warsaw University of Technology and 6 other leading technical universities in Europe: Technical University of Berlin (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg (Sweden), Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (Norway), University of Technology in Aachen (Germany), Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain). The project is coordinated by the Technical University of Berlin.
The universities behind the ENHANCE consortium are leading higher education institutions in their countries. They teach a total of ca. 245,000 students and more than 4,400 of their faculty members and students have taken part in various exchange programmes over the last five years.
Vice-Rector for Research Professor Rajmund Bacewicz said: "ENHANCE is something the Warsaw University of Technology can be proud of. Membership of the ENHANCE consortium is of key importance to our university. It is a chance for a real breakthrough in its internationalization and for significant progress in its teaching activity".
The winning application had been prepared by a team of representatives of all the partner universities. The strategy, mission and activities of the ENHANCE consortium were very highly rated by the European Commission’s international evaluation team. The application received 88 out of 100 points in the evaluation report.
The experts especially appreciated the innovative teaching approach, helping students develop the skills for the future. Students of the consortium’s member universities will be able to take advantage of the international teaching offer of all ENHANCE partners. In the evaluation, experts also emphasized the active involvement of industry and economy stakeholders as well as local authorities in the activities to be implemented by the consortium. As a result, students will learn how to apply knowledge and technology to benefit the society. Experts appreciated the involvement of the local community and underrepresented groups in the future activities of the consortium.
"While working with excellent international universities and numerous project partners, including institutions from the socio-economic environment of the universities, we have a unique opportunity to show that the academic community may play a key role in the shaping of the new post-COVID-19 reality. Providing students with innovative structures to facilitate learning, such as our one campus concept, is of key importance", said Professor Andrzej Kraśniewski, coordinator of the "Society-centred education" work package at the ENHANCE consortium.