Una Europa Student Award 2024

The theme of this year’s Student Award is reimagining the University of the Future. How can we disassemble what universities have been and current are and reimagine them for the future? Universities are complicated institutions which have played important roles in the past. How do you envision the university as a driver and place for better futures? What would you keep, what would you add?

This is what the Una Europa Student Award is about. This is a platform to share your vision with the whole Una Europa community, to have your voice heard and influence the future of our alliance but also of our individual institutions. We are asking you to get creative and think big – what would your ideal future look like?

The Una Europa Student Award is your opportunity to put your thoughts on paper, video, imagery and embark with us on the journey to the University of the Future.

The Student Award is an annual call to award and showcase student visions, ideas, and creativity towards the aim of reinventing the university to create the University of the Future. The scope, prize, and impact will change from year to year.

The Student Award asks big questions related to the future of universities and our alliance and how they relate to big issues in our societies. This is a platform for students to share their ideas and visions and to engage in a dialogue with students, staff, and academics in Una Europa.

The winners of the Student Award will get the opportunity to share about their ideas and insights in different contexts such as the Student Congress and other platforms.

This year’s Una Europa Student Award asks you to reimagine the University of the Future. Universities have long histories and there are plenty of things we might learn from the past while also envisioning an even better future. How can we learn from the past and present when rethinking the University of the Future?

We present the following six areas to guide and shape your vision. These are six key themes for Una Europa, serving as guiding principles for our work as an alliance (explore our visions for these six themes and our 2030 Strategy for inspiration!):

• Diversity and inclusion
• Global engagement beyond Europe
• Student and staff mobility/exchange
• Research and innovation
• Teaching and learning
• Sustainability and climate protection

What you need to do:

• Pick one of the six themes

You can also touch on more than one, but it should be clear which is your primary theme.

• Reflect on two key questions:

How can we learn from the past and present ways that this theme has been implemented?

How can these building blocks be reinvented and connected with new ideas to create a future you would like to see?

• Choose your medium!

Here you can really get creative. Do you want to write a scenario? A poem? Make a video interview with a student from the future? Draw something? Make a collage? Record your spoken word? It’s up to you! Just remember that you submission will need to be made digitally.

• Read and follow the guidelines for submission carefully and submit your vision before the deadline.

Six students will be awarded the Student Award 2024, one for each of the six themes listed above.

The Award includes:

• Fully funded attendance at this year's Una Europa Student Congress, taking place at Freie Universität Berlin 17–20 September
  • You will receive a travel grant to cover travel and accommodation.
• Showcasing of the winning submissions to the Una Europa community
• Hosting a joint session at the Student Congress together with the five other winners.
  • This will be jointly developed with support from Una Europa staff. More information will follow when the winners have been selected.

One winner will be selected for each of the six themes outlined above. Since the submissions can cover a range of mediums and approaches, we aim to create as fair and comprehensive selection criteria as possible.

The submissions will be given points by the selection committee members according to the following criteria:

• Creativity of submission
  • How do you use and play around with the format? How do you use the format to add value to your answer? How is the medium you choose complementing the vision you are presenting?
• Fulfilling the criteria
  • Are you answering and fulfilling the criteria for the assignment?
• Innovation/creativity of your vision
  • How is the content of your answer meaningful? Not just whether you are able to put together something nice, but also how meaningful and interesting the actual idea is beyond the medium you use.

The selection committee will also consider diversity in:

• Representation of different universities
• Study backgrounds and level of studies
• Representation of different media

View the full Terms and Conditions for the Una Europa Student Award

You can enter the prize competition by submitting multimedia material in the form of one piece of media (this can be videos, audio, written texts, images, scanned imagery etc.).

• For video or audio content the length can be maximum two minutes
• For written text a maximum of 1 page can be submitted
• For photos, collages, scanned artistic creations one page/image can be submitted

The submission formats should be the following:

• For video or audio, please provide a link to either a public or private YouTube video or a link to a Google folder with your submission
• For written text, please submit a pdf file in the submission form
• For photos, collages, artistic contributions please provide a .pdf or .png version
• If you want to submit something that has not be clarified here, please reach out to Stinne Vognæs (Stinne.vognas@helsinki.fi) and request information for your specific idea

• Applications are open until 3 June.
• For each theme, 3–5 submissions will be shortlisted by our selection committees of Una Europa staff and students.
• Specialists in Una Europa from each of the themes will review the shortlist and pick the winner.
• Winners will be announced by July 1. More information will follow to the selected winners after this date, including an invitation to follow the programme and workshops in preparation for the Student Congress.
• Pre-meetings will be organised for all the winners to work together on their contribution to the Student Congress.
• Attend the Student Congress in Berlin in September.

• Can I submit an idea even if I applied for the Una Europa Student Congress?

Yes, you are more than welcome to apply for the Student Award even if you applied for the Student Congress during the application period. If you are selected as a delegate for your university you will be removed from the Student Award process.

• What’s covered for the winners?

You will receive a travel grant to participate in the Student Congress at Freie Universität Berlin. This should cover at minimum your travel and accommodation.

• Can I use ChatGPT?

It’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for gathering and developing your idea, but we expect your final submission to be created by you. If we find our that submissions have been created using ChatGPT we reserve the right to disqualify them.

• When will I know whether I was selected?

We will review all the submissions during June and will let all students know by July 1. Even if you weren’t selected, we will still let you know.

• Can I submit more than once?

No, you can only submit one idea for the Student Award 2024.

• Can I respond more than one of the listed themse?

Yes, you can draw inspiration from more than one theme, but it’s important that you have one theme as your primary theme. You will ask about this in the submission form.

• Who can apply?

Bachelor’s and Master’s students and doctoral researchers (PhDs) are eligible. You must be currently enrolled as a full-time student at one of the 11 Una Europa universities to meet the selection criteria.