(Brussels, September 16, 2021) The EUTOPIA European University announces its enlargement with three leading universities joining the consortium this September: Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal) and Università Ca’Foscari Venezia (Italy). The enlargement ceremony is hosted at the Italian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium’s Residence in the presence of key European and local stakeholders.

This expansion reflects the desire of the EUTOPIA universities to broaden, widen, and deepen their efforts to strengthen their complementary capabilities and to offer their students, staff, and research communities a more comprehensive, connected range of international and intercultural opportunities.

The EUTOPIA universities are student-centred, working towards social cohesion by striving for excellence and inclusion, transcending national and educational boundaries to develop innovative pedagogical models, and advancing the movement of people and ideas.  Furthermore, they are committed to our communities, building on our place-making strengths to foster urban and regional development, ultimately preparing our students, staff, and communities to be empowered European citizens in today’s disruptive world.
They share common values: integrity, academic freedom, knowledge sharing with society, and openness to the international community.

The arrival of three new universities reflects EUTOPIA’s desire to be open and transformational as it prepares for the second phase of the European Universities Initiative, which will begin at the end of 2022. EUTOPIA has already grown since its launch in 2018, establishing long-term connections with universities beyond Europe: Université Internationale de Rabat (Morocco), Kyungpook National University (South Korea), Monash University (Australia), and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). EUTOPIA is today a more robust alliance, with a greater impact on society, opening the prospect of a more diverse and attractive European inter-university campus.
Each of the three new universities joining EUTOPIA brings complementary strengths that will reinforce and drive the alliance’s mission forward. 

Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) is one of the largest technical universities in Germany and one of the leading and most dynamic universities nationwide. As a comprehensive university with 17 faculties in five Schools, it offers a wide variety of 124 degree programs and covers a broad research spectrum. Its research foci are: Health Sciences, Biomedicine & Bioengineering, Information Technology & Micro- and Nanoelectronics, Smart Materials & Structures, Energy, Mobility & Environment, and Culture & Societal Change.

NOVA University Lisbon was founded in 1973. Its main characteristic is the autonomy of its nine different schools. Its areas of expertise range from Medicine to Economics, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities. NOVA is currently in the top 25 young European universities founded less than 50 years ago (Times Higher Education world university rankings).

Originally established as Italy’s first business school in 1868, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is a multidisciplinary institution offering a wide range of study programmes in economics and management, modern languages, humanities and sciences. Ca’ Foscari ranks among the world’s top 100 universities for Modern Languages, the best 150 for History, the top 200 for Linguistics and Geography, and the top 250 for Economics & Econometrics as well as Accounting & Finance.

Prof. Ursula M. Staudinger, Rector of Technische Universität Dresden, sees the great potential of this European Alliance: "With our involvement in the EUTOPIA European University Community, we expand our opportunities for shaping a European educational space, joint European and cross-institutional teaching projects and advance the Europeanization of our teaching programs. Also, student, lecturers, researcher and staff mobility across Europe is greatly facilitated, as is the expansion of funding programmes for postdocs. And last but not least, joint applications with our EUTOPIA partners open up advantages when competing for European research funding. Within EUTOPIA we would like to bring to bear the innovative power of science to master the big challenges of the 21^st century such as the climate crisis.

EUTOPIA European University is a connected and inclusive community of like-minded universities. Through collaborative research, challenge-based learning foregrounding pedagogical excellence, greater student and teacher mobility, and shared innovation, EUTOPIA seeks to address local and global challenges, ultimately contributing to creating a new model for higher education in Europe. In June 2019, EUTOPIA was chosen as one of the initial 17 winning alliances of the recent European Universities Initiative competitive call launched by the European Commission.

EUTOPIA European University brings together the Pompeu Fabra University-Barcelona (Spain), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), CY Cergy Paris University (France), the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Ca’Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and the Unversity of Warwick (United Kingdom).

Press contacts

TU Dresden
Directorate Strategy and Communication
Press Office
Konrad Kästner, Deputy Press Officer
Telephone +49 351 463-32427
E-mail  
https://tu-dresden.de/

CA’FOSCARI UNIVERSITY OF VENICE
Communication and Promotion Office
Paola Vescovi: +366 6279602
Enrico Costa: +337 1050858
Federica Ferrarin: +366 6297904
comunica@unive.it
https://www.unive.it/

NOVA UNIVERSITY LISBON:
Joana Réfega +351 919 122 021
  
Susana Costa +351 213 845 137
scosta@unl.pt
https://www.unl.pt/

EUTOPIA
Armando Uribe-Echeverria +33 7 7233 5678
armando.uribe-echeverria@cyu.fr
https://eutopia-university.eu/