BarcelonaA student enrolled at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) will be able to take a degree at their university, but do a section of the training following the teaching plan of the same degree at the Distance University of Hagen, in Germany, and another at the Open University of the Netherlands. This is the clearest example of the ambitious goals that OpenEU, an alliance between ten European online universities that will be coordinated from Barcelona, wants to achieve in the future. For practical purposes, this coalition would result in the creation of the first integrated distance university in the European Union (EU). It is estimated that around 368,000 students could access it per academic year, taking into account the current number of enrolments.
This initiative, endorsed by the European Commission in the framework of the European Universities program, is announced as a tool to guarantee learning opportunities through technology “at any time and place, regardless of time constraints, the place of residence or the personal or professional circumstances” of students who opt for this mode of higher studies. In this sense, its promoters point out that it will allow “non-traditional” students – with an average age of 36 – to access a higher education from which they have “often been excluded” throughout their working lives.
“At a time when private online universities with commercial goals are proliferating everywhere, OpenEU offers the opportunity to claim the need for quality online higher education to strengthen the European Higher Education Area”, says the Rector from the UOC and president of the alliance, Àngels Fitó. In fact, the expansion of these private universities is a concern that has been conveyed by all the rectors participating in the alliance and who see how, often, economic interests come before the educational quality offered online, alert in statements to the ARA.
Fitó explains that the basic idea of the alliance is to “make the most of” the margins granted by academic regulation, which is the exclusive competence of each state, so that university distance learning is as integrated as possible. “Right now the mobility between students, teachers and researchers is partially limited by the arrangements of each country and OpenUE will serve to demonstrate that online training can be the lever to overcome this and change it,” he says. For example, showing that academic requirements can be homogenized through micro-credentials and joint and open degrees and masters.
In the short term, a process is already underway to create a joint and transnational degree, which will be in software development and will be initiated by UNED and the Open University of the Netherlands, and a master’s degree in climate change accessible to those enrolled of all member universities. The alliance also envisages a common virtual campus that allows interaction between the different members of the new university community without borders.
Internship and pan-European exchange
Currently, Europe has 64 alliances of European universities, but, according to Fitó, the difference of OpenEU lies in the use of technology and that one of the priority objectives is the improvement of the labor insertion of students. “Each time we have a longer working life and the market is changing. The alliance takes seriously the support of students who throughout their lives seek to retrain themselves formatively”, says the rector of the UOC. Therefore, on the horizon is the idea of creating an internship and joint work exchange, as well as a virtual job fair and a virtual career guidance tool.
Among the centers that are part of the initiative are the National University of Distance Education (UNED), as well as the Open University of the Netherlands, the Distance University of Hagen (Germany) and the Open University of Portugal. The Open University of Cyprus, the Open Hellenic University (Greece), the University of Bifröst (Iceland), the University of Saint Cyril and Methodius in Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) and the University of Daugavpils (Latvia) are also participating.
Meeting with the Generalitat
16 and 17 gender
The chancellors of the ten European universities driving OpenEU will meet at the Palau de la Generalitat with the Minister of European Union and External Action of the Generalitat, Jaume Duch, on January 16 and 17 to start defining the first steps for the creation of this pioneering project. The forecast is to address how the alliance can contribute to the country’s competitiveness and approve organizational systems and action plans.
Source: www.ara.cat
