What is the overall aim of FOREU4ALL?
Kevin: There are now 65 alliances involving more than 550 universities active under the European Universities initiative. We are facing similar challenges. FOREU4ALL brings people together to discuss those challenges.
I remember when I started at Circle U. a little more than three years ago, my perception was that alliances would be very competitive with each other and it would be difficult to discuss our shared challenges. I was totally wrong. FOREU4ALL is a kind of group therapy!
Sophia: At the core of FOREU4ALL is the exchange of good practice – bringing experts together to exchange on problems and solutions they have identified with counterparts from other universities.
A colleague said recently that the one thing that really makes European Universities alliances different to other types of collaboration is a willingness to be open about failure, to be open about things that don't work, which I think we need far more of. That’s where FOREU4ALL can create value.
What are the goals of FOREU4ALL Work Package 3: Policy Dialogue?
Kevin: As alliances, we are shaping higher education and research. We want to make sure that our experiences on the ground can also shape what is happening at regional, national, and European level. Work Package 3: Policy Dialogue wants not only to make alliances aware that they have that potential, but also that they should use that potential.
Because alliances have grown from EU-funded projects, it's more natural for us to engage with the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). But because higher education is a competence of the EU Member States, we know that ultimately we will have to work with Member States. Together, we can really build strong messages that can shape policy change.
" People need faces. They need stories. They need numbers to understand the scale of the challenges alliances are experiencing. "
Sophia Karner, FOREU4ALL Work Package 3 Policy Dialogue Co-Lead and Senior Policy Officer at Una Europa.
What is the added value of FOREU4ALL contributing to policy dialogue?
Sophia: EU-level engagement is a very busy space. We need to make sure that we don't duplicate efforts. It’s really important for us that we focus on advancing conversations where they're not currently happening.
For example, there's a massive gap in speaking to regional and national policymakers about the transnational collaboration challenges alliances face – not one to one, but bringing them together in a forum to help them see what can change or what has changed already.
In the first phase of Work Package 3, we're focusing on understanding what dialogue is already ongoing and understanding how that can be connected up.
At the moment, alliances have lots of very broad events where we discuss 15, 20 different topics, and we very rarely have all the experts around the table when these discussions are taking place. Our aim as Work Package 3 is to pick one topic – let's say quality assurance of joint programmes – and zoom in on a few concrete challenges as well as highlight positive change that has already happened.
Another thing we could improve upon as alliances is engagement with the European Parliament. FOREU4ALL is trying to provide more structure in terms of how we engage and feed policies. We need more vocal ambassadors. We've realised that the European Universities initiative in itself is not that well known, even among MEPs you would expect to have a very good knowledge of what alliances do!
Kevin: We are at a really critical moment for the EU – with the ongoing Multiannual Financial Framework discussions, for example. I’m not saying that alliances should be at the forefront of that discussion, but based on what we have done in the last six years, we have to be vocal where we see gaps in the funding or resources needed for alliances.
The challenge always is to make sure that we can also directly involve the universities participating in our alliances – that FOREU4ALL is not considered as something between the offices of alliances, another meta-organisation. For the topical groups, for example, I’ve tried to involve experts from across Circle U. partner universities.
FOREU4ALL should provide added value not only for alliances, but for the partner universities that make up our alliances.
" We want to make sure that alliances' experiences on the ground can also shape what is happening at regional, national, and European level. We want not only to make alliances aware that they have that potential, but also that they should use that potential. "
Kevin Guillaume, FOREU4ALL Work Package 3 Policy Dialogue Co-Lead and Secretary-General at Circle U.
How does FOREU4ALL plan to collaborate with established stakeholder organisations in the higher education policy sphere?
Sophia: It’s a work in progress, but the key to collaboration is open channels for communication. We had a first meeting of sector representatives and the FOREU4ALL management team last month. We discussed exactly those questions that you've raised: What's the complementarity? What are our starting points? How can we effectively work together going forward, considering that the wide majority of our partner universities are shared?
We need to keep bringing it back to the role of alliances in experimenting, testing, and piloting things that might not exist yet. We encounter obstacles that other types of collaboration might not – challenges in developing the joint campus, challenges to researcher mobility, challenges in R&I collaboration. Some of those obstacles will not be seen directly by stakeholders.
Our role is to highlight concrete examples of our challenges and work together with stakeholder groups to deliver those messages in the right way.
Many of the higher education networks have been around for a very long time. They have decades of experience. We share the same ultimate goal, but alliances have concrete experience on the ground. How difficult is it to develop a joint programme? How challenging is it to launch a virtual exchange for hundreds of thousands of students? That’s often what’s needed to explain to policymakers what the actual problems are.
People need faces. They need stories. They need numbers to understand the scale of the challenges alliances are experiencing.
What is the goal of FOREU4ALL’s Policy Learning Lab?
Sophia: The Policy Learning Lab is designed to work closely with Work Package 2: FOR-EU Community of Practice, which oversees 20 topical subgroups – small communities of practice, bringing together experts from across the 65 European Universities alliances, with an ambition to engage beyond alliances. The subgroups address a broad range of topics – governance, digitalisation, interoperability, student engagement, and more.
Our idea with the Policy Learning Lab is to work in close cooperation with the topical subgroups to identify key challenges experienced by alliances and then bring EU and national stakeholders together with these alliance experts to explore solutions.
The first Policy Learning Lab will focus on capacity building: receiving input from alliances who have already engaged in policy work as well as giving the floor to stakeholder organisations to explain what they do. We’re trying to bring different voices around the table to openly discuss how are they shaping the higher education policy space and what the niche is for alliances.
Kevin: We tend to forget that it's not so natural for all alliances to engage in policy. Many alliances are project-orientated. And when you are project-orientated, it's normal that you will not give the same importance to policy – what’s important is that you realise the objective of your project, and that's all. I would like the first Policy Learning Lab to raise awareness about the policy aspect of alliances.
The first FOREU4ALL Policy Learning Lab will take place on Friday 6 June 2025. Visit the FOREU4ALL website to keep up with the latest from the Community of Practice.
