Building a European university consortium: the case of the U!REKA network
ProjectThe Erasmus+ call for European Universities in 2018 can be seen as another important step towards establishing a European Higher Education Area. The university-consortiums eligible are requested to go beyond existing higher education cooperation models by creating a “long-term joint strategy”, an “interuniversity-campus” and cross-national “knowledge-creating teams” (European commission 2018).
This project paper discusses these developments from two points of view:
- Examining the context and drivers for the establishment of cross national university consortiums from a macro-perspective.
- Discussing the specific case of the U!REKA network.
Organisational theory is applied, as it provides a set of theoretical insights concerning the possible modes of cooperation between organisations as well as the requirements and typical phases of their development.
These theoretical reflections are contrasted to the actual development of the U!REKA network. This enables a theoretically grounded discussion of the possible costs and benefits of a European university consortium. Furthermore it may also contribute to further development of the theory of interorganisational cooperation in the public sector.
Want to know more about this project? Contact the project coordinator, Barbara Lämleinn.