"We have laid a strong foundation for the 'Emerge Student Forum'. Much remains to be implemented before we are done, but with the ESF in place, the future looks bright for students' contribution to Emerge," says Andreas Gjerstad Møllerhagen, who was one of two representatives for the students at INN University during the meeting in Cyprus.
"Emerge Student Forum" (ESF) will be the students' body in the alliance in which INN University and eight other universities in Europe are members.
Coordinating study programmes
Through Emerge, it will be easier for students to take courses across the institutions in the alliance, among other advantages. Emerge has applied for a "European University" status and hopes for an answer before the summer. This EU scheme will contribute to institutions within higher education committing to closer cooperation, including towards increased mobility. With an EU status in place, the institutions aim to coordinate selected study programmes, so that students can pick pre-approved courses from the institutions' study portfolios and combine them into a degree.
Partners coming together
The partners in Emerge met last week at Neapolis University Pafos in Cyprus to strengthen the collaboration and put it into action, so that moving forward can be done quickly when the EU's response to the "European University" application arrives.
45 visitors from all over Europe participated, together with a number of employees from the host institution.
Among the themes covered were cooperation in education and lifelong learning, research, and communication. In addition, two students from each institution participated to lay the foundations for a student forum in Emerge.
Framework for student engagement
During the week, the students produced a document that defines what the "Emerge Student Forum" should be and how it should work. Later this week, digital elections will be held to fill various positions in the forum.
"The students' voice in Emerge is very important, and we have a good starting point for cooperation after last week's gathering of student representatives from several universities in different countries. We developed friendships across national borders, which will come in handy when we have to work closely together in the future," says student representative Lea Karoline Sundal.
Read more about the Emerge university alliance (inn.no)
This article was translated from Norwegian by Noorit Larsen