Beyond Academia

Conferences and sessions of this edition were focused on the internationalization of universities

The Rector’s Delegate and Coordinator of the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU), Professor of the UCA José Antonio Muñoz-Cueto, gave a lecture during the Summer School of the French Rectors’ Conference (CPU), which took place in Versailles (France) on 28 and 29 August 2019.

This lecture was part of the session, entitled Universities as actors in the construction of the European space, in which Professor Muñoz-Cueto was invited to present the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU). During this session, Vanessa Debiais-Sainton, responsible for the Higher Education Unit of the European Commission, presented the “European Universities” Initiative, its objectives and the results of the first pilot call. After that, a debate on European Universities among the attendees took place, moderated by professors David Alis, Rector of the University of Rennes 1 and Nathalie Dompnier, Rector of the University Lumière Lyon 2.

The 2019 CPU Summer School also addressed the role that European Universities can play to promote the international success of higher education institutions in Europe and the benefits for their local and regional territories, as well as the role that regional and national administrations should play to support the internationalization of universities.

The 2019 CPU Summer School, attended by the 74 Rectors of the French Universities, is an annual discussion forum at the highest academic level, in which the main challenges of higher education and research in France and Europe are addressed. The central topic in the present edition was the Internationalization of Universities, focusing on the role that universities can play in the global economy, in the transformations required to increase their international cooperation, their ability to attract talent and the students’ mobility. The 2019 edition was organized around 4 thematic sessions: Being an International Organization; State Policies and University Policies to support Internationalization; Universities as Actors in the Construction of the European Space; Shared viewpoints with Foreign Universities on Design and Major Thrust of their Strategies.

Participants in the 2019 CPU Summer School attended a reception held by the City Hall of Versailles, hosted by François de Mazières, mayor of Versailles, in which also participated Alain Bui, Rector of the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-in Yvelines, where the meeting took place, Gilles Roussel, President of the CPU and Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation of the French Government.

The European University of the Seas (SEA-EU), coordinated by the University of Cádiz, and comprising the University of Western Brittany in Brest (France), the University of Kiel (Germany), the University of Gdańsk (Poland), the University of Split (Croatia) and the University of Malta (Malta), has been one of the 17 Alliances selected by the European Commission in the first pilot call of the European Universities Initiative. These 17 alliances involve 114 higher education institutions from 24 Member States of the European Union.