European University Foundation - Campus Europae
EUF - Campus Europae (short name: Campus Europae) is a European network which aims at the promotion of high quality student mobility and contributing to educating a generation of European graduates with an innate understanding of Europe’s unity in diversity.[1] The project is under the patronage of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its secretariat is in Oetrange.
Abbreviation
EUF - CE
2003
16C, rue de Canach, L-5353 Oetrange, Luxembourg
Christoph Ehmann
Miguel Sotelo, Heinz Fassmann, Andris Kangro, Wojciech Wolf
European University Association (EUA); Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP); European Language Council Partnerships: European Commission; European Parliament; Council of Europe; Erasmus Student Network; Luxembourg Government
History[edit]
Beginning[edit]
Campus Europae was initiated by a group of German experts in Higher Education chaired by Dr. Konrad Schily,[2] former President of the Witten/Herdecke University, and Meinolf Dierkes, former President of the Social Science Research Center Berlin, to whom the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had asked in 1998 to develop a concept for an educational initiative that was supposed to be launched during the German presidency of the European Union in 1999. As the Kosovo War occupied the interests of the European leaders, the project was postponed until 2001, when the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker took over the initiative, added this project to his task-list for the next government period [3] and invited European ministers of Higher Education and universities to engage in this mobility project. Between 1998 and 2003 Campus Europae was funded by resources of the Quandt Foundation, the Allianz Kulturstiftung, the Volkswagen Foundation and a grant by the media entrepreneur, Leo Kirch.
Establishment[edit]
At the end of 2003 the Rectors’ Council elected the first president and secretary general, respectively Noel Whelan and Christoph Ehmann. Shortly after, in 2004, the first experimental student exchanges took place and a new secretariat was put in place. Also in 2004 the Campus Europae Student Council (now Club d’Europe) was created, consisting of student representatives from each member universities. It has since played an integral role in the Campus Europae network. In 2005, Campus Europae started developing the concept of studying and working abroad and also organized an International Conference about the Social Dimension of the Bologna Process,[4] under the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Union. The following year Campus Europae and the European Investment Bank started investigating the possibility of establishing a pan-European loan system for student mobility and in 2007 the former EU Commissioner Ján Figeľ labeled Campus Europae as “Erasmus +”, during a conference [5] at the European Parliament. This name was later adopted for the EU programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport 2014–2020.
Foundation[edit]
In 2008, the umbrella organization of network was formally established as European University Foundation – Campus Europae, to which degree-awarding powers were bestowed upon in the same year. In 2009, the Campus Europae online language-learning portal was launched and in 2010 the online database of ex-ante equivalences made available to its exchange students, while the Rectors appointed Estela Pereira as mobility Ombudswoman. In 2011, the Luxembourg Forum and "Ride for Your Rights!" initiatives were launched while in the following year the first 1000 CE exchange students milestone was reached;[6] additionally, the first two Campus Europae Summer Schools took place, while in 2013 the new Erasmus+ Programme embraced one of the founding notions of Campus Europae – that students should be able to study abroad more than once during their academic careers [7]- also echoing the need for a greater emphasis on language learning and academic recognition.
Luxembourg Forum on Human Rights and Higher Education[edit]
The Luxembourg Forum is an international conference aimed at facilitating a reflection on the capacity and responsibility of European Universities to uphold Human Rights within and beyond academia. The Forum is a joint initiative of Campus Europae, the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights at the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Government. The initiative is under the patronage of the Council of Europe. The Luxembourg Forum was first held in 2011, while a second edition took place in 2013. Speakers in the first two editions include Anatoli Mikhailov, Jean Paul Lehners, Jürgen Kohler, Emmanuel Decaux, Antonio Papisca, Heidi Hautala, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Ólöf Ólafsdóttir and Sjur Bergan.
The European University Foundation consists of the following 30 Higher Education institutions:[41]
Campus Europae is a member of the following organizations:
Campus Europae has cooperation agreements with: