It was with much fanfare that the FernUniversität in Hagen hosted a hybrid meeting today to mark the launch of the Open European University (OpenEU) initiative.
The kick-off meeting introduced the OpenEU project, a collaborative initiative bringing together Europe’s leading open and distance universities along with five on-campus universities committed to digital transformation. This alliance, backed by a €14.4 million grant from the European Commission, aims to strengthen the digital, green, and social dimensions of the European Higher Education Area.
FernUniversität’s incoming Rector, Prof. Dr Stefan Stürmer, opened the event, highlighting the university’s role in this ground-breaking project.
A castell in Tarragona, Spain; Xaviaranda
Beaming in from Barcelona was Pastora Martinez of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and she gave attendees further background information. She likened the effort required to develop a pan-European university for lifelong learning to what it takes to form a castell – something one might see at a Barcelona street festival or circus. The people on top are able to carry all this weight and form this constellation because they receive ample support from the ones pushing in from the edges.
The work done since 2021 when the OpenEU project was launched in earnest has already been monumental.
The kick-off meeting provided an opportunity for attendees to meet the project leadership and team, including Prof Uwe Elsholz (Vice-Rector for Continuing Education, Transfer and International Affairs) and Sebastian Lauritz (the newly-appointed Project Manager for the FernUni portion of the OpenEU project). Attendees both online and on-site also learned about the initiative’s goals and engaged in an interactive session where they posed their questions and put forward their needs.
The OpenEU’s objectives are manifold and include:
- Developing a comprehensive catalogue of joint educational opportunities
- Creating a shared virtual campus for community interaction
- Supporting digital education integration in European higher education institutions
- Fostering predoctoral research collaboration among alliance universities
At the heart of the project is the OpenEU Alliance, which consists of ten institutions:
- St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko and Tarnovo, Bulgaria
- Open University of Cyprus
- FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany
- Hellenic Open University, Greece
- Bifröst University, Iceland
- Daugavpils University, Latvia
- Open Universiteit, Netherlands
- Universidade Aberta, Portugal
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
- Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
The OpenEU initiative is set to benefit over 368,000 university students, primarily with non-traditional profiles, and will provide increased opportunities for mobility and collaboration among students, staff, and researchers across the consortium.
The FernUniversität in Hagen, as a key member of the OpenEU alliance, will receive €2 million over the next four years to contribute to this ambitious project. This kick-off meeting marks the beginning of a new era in European higher education, promising to expand access and coverage through innovative, digital and inclusive approaches.
Click here to find out more about the overall project and the FernUni’s role in the “Lifelong Learning” work package.
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