The University of Pisa joins Circle U., a European University Alliance that includes eight other prestigious universities: University of Aarhus (Denmark), Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), King's College London (United Kingdom), University of Paris (France), University of Belgrade (Serbia), Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Vienna (Austria), the last entering together with the University of Pisa. Since its launch in November 2020, the alliance partners have been cooperating with the goal of creating an inclusive, interdisciplinary and strongly research-oriented European University by 2025. European Universities constitute true strategic partnerships which, in the aims of the European Commission, are called upon to build the universities of the future, promoting European values and identity and improving the quality and international competitiveness of higher education in Europe.
“The University of Pisa is greatly honoured to join the European Circle U. Alliance. – stated the Rector, Professor Paolo Maria Mancarella –. From the very first contacts we realised that we completely share the guiding principles of the Alliance and fully support its goals. We are sure that the atmosphere of great collaboration and perfect agreement so quickly achieved will allow us rapidly to join in with the partner universities, cooperating in the creation of an ambitious, inclusive and sustainable European University. We are certain that the Circle U. Alliance, thanks to the prestige of the partner universities, will provide important new opportunities for the students and researchers of the University of Pisa, further enhancing our role in the European research and higher education area”.
"We are entering a very important new phase for the development of our alliance - says Svein Stølen, Rector of the University of Oslo and President of Circle U., commenting on the entrance of the Universities of Pisa and Vienna - Tomorrow, students from Aarhus, Belgrade, Berlin, London, Leuven, Paris and Oslo, but also academics, researchers and staff members, will have even more opportunities to collaborate, innovate, co-create with their colleagues from Pisa and Vienna ”. With the entry of the universities of Pisa and Vienna, the Circle U. network includes almost half a million students and about 65,000 teachers and technical / administrative staff. The shared mission is to strengthen the links between teaching, research, innovation and society to respond to the great global challenges of today and tomorrow, initially focusing on the issues of democracy, climate change and global health.
"The great goal of European Universities is to build a sort of distributed campus, where students from different universities will be able to take advantage of an increasingly excellent, international and future-oriented educational offer, as well as being able to take advantage of shared services such as a "Student card" that can be used in all the universities of the alliance - explains Francesco Marcelloni, Vice Rector for Cooperation and International Relations at the Pisa University. Our students will have the advantage of being able to draw on the large number of courses and training activities offered by Circle U universities in order to build their own to build own study plans, enjoying the possibility of structured mobility. Teachers will be able to co-create programmes and course modules, activate double degrees and design innovative forms of teaching, drawing on shared experiences. Researchers will have a large European common home where they can cooperate in designing and carrying out research in the most innovative fields and transfer research results to an extended territory that covers all of Europe, from North to South, from East to West. The Alliance also intends to act proactively to influence European higher education policies with innovative and shared ideas".
The official signature ceremony will take place on 28 January at the Mission of Norway to the European Union in Brussels, in the presence of partners and key European, national and regional players.