EDUC - European Digital UniverCity

The University of Cagliari is one of the partners of the prestigious group of universities selected by the EU, in the framework of the Erasmus + “European Universities” program, whose aim is to promote new models of physical and virtual mobility (even short term) for students, teachers, and staff and to enhance common research projects.

EDUC in numbers

• eight European universities involved in 7  EU Countries: University of Potsdam as coordinator (Germany), University of Paris Nanterre and University of Rennes 1 (France); Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic),University of Cagliari (Italy), University of Jaume I (Spain, and University of South-Eastern (Norway);
•  200,000 students;
•  30,000 staff members (administrative employees, professors, researches); 
• 135 courses of study in English;
• 12,8  million Euro.

Objectives

• promoting new models of physical and virtual mobility  for students, teachers and staff to face the society challenges in an innovative and cross-sectorial way;
• building shared structures among partners (including a cooperation on digital infrastructures);
• fostering joint training programs for the development of professional and academic competences;
• creating a network of local and international partners (stakeholders);
• promoting the acquisition of transversal skills (European topics, foreign languages, entrepreneurship);
• connecting teachers, researchers and administrative staff to promote the exchange of good practices and launch new training and research projects.  

Target group

Students, teachers and researchers, administrative staff; other partners and general public.

Cooperation areas 

Thanks to the coordination of the University of Cagliari, the EDUC partnership has selected, within the “European meets Research” activity, the priority and strategic topics on which the researchers of the eight universities will strengthen their interdisciplinary cooperation.

The selection of these work areas was based on the analysis of the strengths of each EDUC partner and on their ability to contribute to European (Horizon Europe) and regional (S3) policies. The seven selected themes are:

1. Lifelong Health and Wellbeing 
2. Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence 
3. European Union Studies 
4. Sustainable Changes: climate and resources 
5. Justice, inequality and inclusion 
6. Mobility / Smart cities 
7. Culture and heritage 

Activities

Here are some of the activities that involve the students of the 8 partners:

• short-term mobility to develop "intensive programs" on specific topics with students and teachers from the 8 partner universities;
• short-term mobility to another University of the Alliance;
• online courses to develop “critical thinking” followed by short internships;
• ad-hoc seminars on the 7 key topics selected by the project;
• short internships in research laboratories to develop scientific hypothesis and test them in virtual classes to develop practical skills;
• interdisciplinary and transnational virtual classes called “Journal Clubs” to help students develop critical analysis and discussing scientific articles;
• online training courses focused on European topics and online language courses.

For further information, go to the dedicated EDUC students’ web section.

 Here are only some of the opportunities that involve the teachers and researchers of the 8 partners:

• support for the development of courses combining virtual exchanges and short-term mobility for students;
• mobility programs for teachers in order to develop new collaborations and projects;
• organize online courses on European topics with English subtitles / translation;
• work on the 7 research themes identified by the project and attend ad-hoc seminars;
• proposing research projects under European or international calls with EDUC partners;
• participating in a linguistic "tandem" with teachers / researchers of the universities of the network;
• suggesting teaching methods on scientific research;
• proposing online teaching methods also accessible to students from other faculties.

For further information, go to the dedicated EDUC pages: Teachers for teachers and Researchers for researchers.

Here are some actions/activities for non-academic staff:

• possibility to attend languages courses;
• meeting administrative staff from the partners of EDUC Alliance with the aim of exchanging experiences (job shadowing);
• being involved in EDUC local and international seminars and events;
• supporting teachers and researchers in EDUC research activities and in their pedagogical projects;
• being involved in skills recognition for EDUC students.

For further details, go to the dedicated EDUC web section.