ENLIGHT European University
DEVELOPMENT PERIOD
2020 – Present
WHAT IS IT?
ENLIGHT is the European University Network to promote Equitable Quality of Life, Sustainability and Global Engagement through Higher Education Transformation.
MAIN PARTICIPATING ENTITIES
ENLIGHT brings together nine top-tier, research-intensive universities, including UPV/EHU and Université de Bordeaux, Belgium’s Ghent University (coordinator), the University of Göttingen, Germany, the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, Sweden’s Uppsala University, the University of Tartu, Estonia, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the National University of Ireland Galway College.
Description
In total, ENLIGHT embraces a community of 312,500 students in 12 cities from all across Europe (north-south-east-west, coastal areas and mainland). This geographic diversity is one of the major assets of ENLIGHT.
ENLIGHT believes that higher education has an important role to play in how we tackle the major social transition challenger we face in relation to the environment, population and the digital world. ENLIGHT’S mission is to contribute to the fundamental transformation of European Higher Education to empower learners as globally engaged citizens with state-of-the-art knowledge, skills, and innovation potential to tackle major societal transitions and to promote sustainability and equitable quality of life.
The nine universities share an agenda related to education, research and innovation focusing on five emblematic challenges, which are considered to be key for social well-being and future sustainability and influence at least (ODS) 10 of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These five challenges address issues in the fields of health and well-being, the digital revolution and the impact of digitalisation, climate change, use of energy and the circular economy and equality.
ENLIGHT establishes a novel framework for tackling these challenges by means of forging alliances between universities, local stakeholders and international university networks.
Euskampus Fundazioa, Tecnalia and DIPC are all ENLIGHT associates.