European Universities Initiative - FORTHEM Alliance
The University of Burgundy is a member of the European University FORTHEM Alliance (Fostering Outreach within European Regions, Transnational Higher Education and Mobility) with eight other universities:
- Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany,
- University of Jyväskylä in Finland,
- University of Latvia in Latvia,
- University of Opole in Poland,
- University of Palermo in Italy,
- University of Valencia in Spain,
- University of Agder, in Norway,
- Lucian Blaga university of Sibiu, in Roumania.
The European Universities initiative is one of the key flagship actions of the EU, working to construct the future of the European Education Area. It brings together groups of universities around Europe to create alliances, such as FORTHEM, in order to sustainably build up ambitious cross-border cooperation in the form of a European Campus for education, research and innovation. This goes far beyond student and staff mobility, by favouring international interactions on a daily basis, in all domains of university life.
FORTHEM was one of the first 17 alliances selected and set up in 2019. As a pioneering experience, its mission is to imagine new forms of cooperation, working to "bring Europe home" into every classroom, share and build on innovative best practices, and construct a model for the European Universities of the future.
- Democratize international opportunities for the students of the alliance during their academic career.
- Develop an institutional framework for permanent and integrated collaboration between the member institutions of the alliance and encourage staff mobility.
- Build together a "European Campus", allowing physical, virtual and hybrid forms of mobility and to increase the number of joint study programs.
- Encourage multilingualism through various linguistic resources.
- Address different societal challenges and to promote the approach of an open society for tomorrow’s European citizens, who will develop 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, self-learning, intercultural communication abilities …and so on.
- Bring innovation to the education system and strengthen the links between education, research and innovation.
- Involve socio-economic partners as well as our citizens into the alliance’s actions, because, as its name suggests, FORTHEM is made for them: for our students, for our staff, for our partners and our local communities.
- Contribute to the social, economic and educational development of our regions and beyond.
In order to achieve its objectives, the FORTHEM Alliance is structured around 3 main aspects.
The aim is to promote mobility but also to develop new forms of mobility. This innovative form will be made possible thanks to the digital academy. These new forms of mobility will involve all members of the university: students, teachers and administrative staff.
The FORTHEM alliance has set up 9 Labs (expert teams) on seven different themes in order to answer the societal challenges that we currently face:
- Food Science;
- Experience Europe;
- Diversity and Migration;
- Plurilingualism at school and in higher education;
- Digital transformations;
- Climate and resources;
- Resilience, quality of life and demographic change ;
- Cultural heritage ;
- Art and aethetics in contemporary society.
They are all made up of researchers, students and external partners. Each partner university is responsible for one of these themes. These Labs will allow to set up international actions through many different disciplines, in order to establish research projects and networks (arranging conferences, extensive research works, coordination of PhDs, etc.).
This axis promotes and supports the students’ civic engagement with the help of student associations as well as of the staff from the professional integration services, within the universities. It also aims to put socio-economic actors in touch, on an interregional level.
FIT FORTHEM, a new research-oriented project
As part of the FORTHEM Alliance, a new project was launched in early 2021, addition to the actions that were already in place. FIT FORTHEM (Fostering Institutional Transformation of research and innovation policies in European Universities) aims to focus the partners’ thoughts and actions on collaboration in the research and innovation field, while seeking to achieve a common strategy in these areas. This new project falls within the harmonization policy that we aim for, in order to standardize the Higher Education and the European Universities Initiative, within the European Union. This will offer students, researchers and staff a true collaborative research environment.
How to get involved in the European Universities initiative through the FORTHEM Alliance or take advantage of its actions?
Anyone can get involved in our alliance’s projects.
Private companies: you can offer internships for the international students from our alliance which will bring you new ideas and a European dimension to your daily activities; you can cooperate with our research laboratories and be part of an international network of companies.
Public service (town halls, schools, etc.): you can disseminate information about the FORTHEM Alliance to your various audiences, but also organize events with us to promote the Alliance, put us in contact with other potential partners, welcome international interns and join in on a project carried out by our Labs.
Associations: with our students, you can develop a civic engagement project linked to one of the 17 objectives of the United Nations to transform and improve our world.
Media: you can help us to make the FORTHEM Alliance known to different audiences and offer internships for international students of the alliance.
Research centers: join us on the various research projects.
Individuals: join our civic engagement projects through local associations, respond to surveys conducted as part of our research activities, take advantage of our online courses that will be developed as part of the Digital Academy.
You have the ability to do a short stay (all expenses paid) within the FORTHEM partner universities, but also access online courses, language courses, have an exchange semester, get involved in societal involvement projects, access the internship database in our partner universities’ regions…and so on. You can find all the details about the opportunities offered to you on the Alliance's website.
There are new cooperation and research perspectives for teacher-researchers, you can participate in thematic projects depending on your profession for administrative staff, you can also access online trainings and do short stays abroad for all staff...
Find all the details on how to get involved in alliance projects on the Uiversity of Burgundy intranet and on the alliance's website.
More information
- Visit the FORTHEM Alliance website.
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- Contact the FORTHEM office at the University of Burgundy
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- +33 (0)3 80 39 37 61
- Pôle International
Service Coopération interuniversitaire et montage de projets
Maison de l’Université – bureau R29
Esplanade Erasme
BP 27877 - 21078 Dijon Cedex
France