On April 19, 2024, the first meeting of Slovak universities involved in the European Universities Initiative was held at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. More than 25 representatives of all five alliances active in Slovakia attended the meeting, INVEST (Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra), ENLIGHT (Comenius University Bratislava), EULiST (Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava), FilmEU (Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava),representatives of the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic (MŠVVaM SR), Slovak Academic Information Agency (SAIA), Slovak Academic Association for International Cooperation (SAAIC) and representatives of the non-funded consortia EMERGE (Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica) a KreativEU (Trnava University). The Technical University of Košice and Ulysseus European University were represented by Ján Piteľ, Vice-Rector for International Relations and Mobilities, by Viliam Fedák, Project Manager, and by Natália Vašková, Coordinator of the “Ulysseus Mobility” working group.

The meeting was opened by Tine Delva, a Deputy Head of Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport, and Culture. The forum focused on the presentation of the different alliances and discussion on accreditation, joint study programmes, training activities, project implementation experiences and meeting mobility objectives. The meeting resulted in the networking of the participating universities and in a concrete plan to hold another meeting in the autumn in Košice (with TUKE as a host university) and in Bratislava in the winter.

The European Universities Alliances is an initiative of the European Commission that aims to set up close inter-institutional cooperation between universities across the European Union. Students can obtain a degree by combining studies in several countries and thus increase their competitiveness on the labour market.

European universities are consortiums dealing with higher education in the field of research, innovation, and services to society. The alliances have diverse models of systemic, structural, and sustainable transnational cooperation that strengthen the quality and performance of higher education across Europe for the benefit of students and staff, while promoting democratic values.

Currently, there are 50 alliances in the EU, involving more than 430 higher education institutions across Europe. By mid-2024, the initiative aims to support 60 alliances involving more than 500 European institutions. There are currently five European University Alliances in Slovakia, three are active from 2020 (Ulysseus, INVEST and ENLIGHT) and another two started their activities in autumn 2023 (EULiST and FilmEU).

Ulysseus European University

By 2030, the vision of Ulysseus European University is to establish an excellency-recognised and internationally attractive European University, open to the world, person-centred and fostering entrepreneurship. The ambition is thus to contribute to the shaping of the European Higher Education and Research Area and consequently Europe’s future.

Ulysseus provides opportunities for students, teachers, and researchers from partner universities for their education, mutual mobility, and new cutting-edge research projects. Ulysseus European University was established in 2020 and its current members are the University of Seville (Spain, coordinator of the Alliance), the University of Genoa (Italy), Côte d'Azur University (Nice, France), the Technical University of Košice, MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® (Innsbruck, Austria), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Helsinki, Finland), University of Münster (Germany) and the University of Montenegro (Podgorica, Montenegro).

For more information about the Ulysseus European University: www.ulysseus.eu