59 grande région
University of the Greater Region Advisory Board of the project UGR: Presidents of the 5 universities and political stakeholders of the regions Presidency alternates every 6 months
Kaiserslautern
Liége
Luxembourg
Metz
Nancy
Saarbrücken
Trier
Steering Group of the project: all five universities are represented (at least 4 meetings a year) Module 1: UGR-GOVERNANCE
3 years
Coordination and Administration
6 months
lenge.” Luxembourg students are, of course, used to studying at universities in the Greater Region or just beyond its border – too many still do, according to Tarrach. He cites figures, based on those students receiving state financial support at the end of September 2008, that indicate there are 356 Luxembourg students at Trier, 202 at Nancy and 443 at the University of Liege (of which 193 are in Bastogne). At the University of Luxembourg, Tarrach says that of the 2,200 nonLuxembourgers that make up 50% of the student body, some 500 are what he calls “real foreigners” (i.e. they have come to Luxembourg specifically to attend university). The remaining 1,700 are foreigners who live in Luxembourg or commute from across its borders. He does not expect that figure to rise significantly, but would expect the number of Luxembourgers and students arriving from further afield to enrol in the university to increase. And it is those foreign students that Tarrach wants to see being given the opportunity to study for short periods at one of the partner universities in the University of the Greater Region.
Development of a masterplan, Best practice, internal evaluation, Communication and marketing, Internet portal
Module 2: UGR-MOBILITY
Module 3: UGR-EDUCATION
Module 4: UGR-RESEARCH
Module 5: UGR-OPEN
Students and teachers
Students
Doctoral students and researchers
Promoting the mobility of students, Harmonisation of study schedules, Mutual acceptance of study credits, Exchange Programmes…
Joint courses of study (modular and complementary), block courses, quality management in teaching, e-learning, Networking Student Advisory Services…
Other HEI’s in the GR, students and researchers outside the GR, population of the GR, university members
Joint doctoral training including softskills, Summer Schools, quality standards in research, joint proposals in EU programmes…
Integration of other Higher Education Institutions, Marketing for the project UGR especially outside the GR, Workshops on IPR…
Evaluation of the results by a group of experts and preparation of a strategic follow-up project based on the analysis
Research cooperation Post-graduate students on PhD courses can also benefit greatly from the proximity of the universities within the UGR, Tarrach says. Researchers, on the other hand, are by their very nature independently mobile and would travel between universities whether the UGR existed or not. Nevertheless, with research being one of the pillars of the Luxembourg government’s economic diversification policy, the University of the Greater Region’s goal of creating common PhD schools and strengthening research cooperation is clearly in the interest of the Grand Duchy. Professor Burkard Hillebrands, Vice-President for Research and Technology at Kaiserslautern Technical University, says that researchers cannot be forced to work together but must be motivated to do so. If the UGR project encourages this generation of students to be more mobile, the following generations will take mobility between the seats of learning for granted. But Hillebrands also underlines the role of new technologies, and especially of advanced e-learning in developing the project. Raising awareness of topics such as intel-
lectual property rights and technology transfer, another of the UGR’s stated goals, is also an area that has been explored recently in Luxembourg. But being mobile is all very well and good as long as students also have adequate accommodation opportunities when they arrive to study temporarily at another university. Accommodation is one of the major challenges facing the University of Luxembourg, and Tarrach readily admits that there is something of a Catch 22 situation. With the campus set to move to Belval it is difficult to convince the City of Luxembourg to create more student residences, but students do not yet want to live in Belval while they are still studying in the capital city. It is, in the end, a problem for the state and local governments to sort out, but one that has caused the University of Luxembourg plenty of headaches. Tarrach has even developed plans to approach local hotels and ask for reduced rates for students if they have vacant rooms during slower periods of the year.
paperjam | Février 2009 | ÉconomIE & Finance
The financial resources made available to the UGR project will help all partners, says Tarrach. But Professor Peter Schwenkmezger, President of the University of Trier, stresses that it is essential that the structures are in place to continue the project after the EU funding stops. Trier and Kaiserslautern are fully implicated in the project, even if they are only listed as strategic partners and have not taken on responsibility for any of the five project modules during the initial phase, says Schwenkmezger. As well as the mobility module, the UGR projects include governance, education, research and openness. The modules – each managed by one principal university with the support of a second partner – will each run for three years. After that period a six-month evaluation and analysis will prepare the groundwork for the sustainability of the UGR project. Indeed, this is vital if the Greater Region is to fulfil its 2020 goal, expressed in the 2003 study, “Visions for the Future”, to be “a higher education area serving as a European model region.”