EU4DUAL – Savonia is Part of a European Alliance Developing a Higher Education Model of the Future
With the start of 2023 Savonia University of Applied Sciences became part of the new European University Alliance in Dual Education (EU4DUAL) supported by the European Universities Initiative. The purpose of the European University Alliances is to build the higher education of the future and promote mobility, as well as develop in-depth cooperation within the alliance.
EU4DUAL’s vision is to be a pioneer and an example of higher education that produces expertise for the future needs of working life and solves global challenges in cooperation with students and working life. The European University Alliances that have been earlier formed have typically been led by research universities, whereas EU4DUAL is the first alliance of universities that are all working life oriented. The alliance will seek to generate knowledge on how to contribute to a more sustainable future and responsible development of society and business through education and RDI activities.
The EU4DUAL alliance includes nine European universities strongly committed to the business environments located in their regions. The aim of the alliance is to use dual education to help Europe address its various global challenges including climate change, decarbonisation, digitalisation, and healthy living. The dual education refers to the education in which students combine periods of practical learning in companies and organisations with periods of academic learning. Therefore, this model is very close to the Finnish University of Applied Sciences education.
The EU4DUAL Alliance is composed of nine leading European universities in dual education: Mondragon University (Spain), Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (Germany), FH JOANNEUM UAS (Austria), Savonia UAS (Finland), ESTIA Institute of Technology (France), John von Neumann University (Hungary), PAR University College (Croatia), Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Malta) and Koszalin University of Technology (Poland). The long-term aim is to launch the world’s largest integrated dual education institution, where academic and business levels are seamlessly integrated.
In Savonia’s study fields the collaboration within the alliance can be e.g. versatile mobility activities or developing new courses and micro-credentials together with partners. The alliance will work together to strengthen the cooperation between universities, industry partners and students to meet the skill demand of employers, and at the same time improve the employability rate of students. In the longer-term new double and joint degrees will be developed between alliance partners.
Savonia will be leading one significant work package of the alliance: Academic Coordination of Grand Innovation Challenges. In this work package the alliance will apply studies, research, and innovation to some of the most pressing problems of our times in collaboration with academia, industry, and students. The grand challenges which will be addressed are Future of Work, Green Economy, and Healthy Living.
Author: Virpi Laukkanen, Director of Internationality. See the original article here.
