ENLIGHT

The ENLIGHT Consortium: partners, vision and mission

ENLIGHT is a consortium of 9 European partners: it unites the universities of the Basque Country (ES-PV), Bordeaux (FR), Bratislava (SK), Galway (IE), Göttingen (DE), Groningen (NL), Tartu (EE), Uppsala (SE) and Ghent (BE).

Under coordination of Ghent University ENLIGHT was selected in the framework of the second call for European Universities, the European Commission's pilot program for new multilateral networks.

ENLIGHT stands for European university Network to promote equitable quality of Life, sustaInability and Global engagement through Higher education Transformation.

Like no other, the ENLIGHT consortium embodies the geographical, cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe. ENLIGHT wants to make full use of this wealth and diversity to offer new, flexible international study opportunities tailored to everyone's needs.

Our mission is to contribute to the fundamental transformation of European Higher and empower learners as globally engaged citizens with state-of-the-art knowledge, skills, and innovation potential to tackle major societal transitions and to promote equitable quality of life and sustainability.

ERASMUS+ Project

Over the next three years ENLIGHT will test and develop new models and methodologies for education and research in the framework of the Erasmus+ KA2 project.

Not only will ENLIGHT set the basis for a new qualitative competence framework , but also create more opportunities for international learning. Along flexible international learning paths not only students, but all ‘learners’ will be offered more options to acquire knowledge skills and generic competences empowering them to be globally engaged citizens: living lab modules on real-life problems, global summer schools, exchange windows, language courses, …

In order to pilot new challenge-based learning formats ENLIGHT will focus on five themes climate change, health and well-being, inequality, digital revolution, energy and circularity.

ENLIGHT strives to transform the way in which we address global challenges by developing adapted to the complex sustainability issues that cities and communities face today, focusing on the five chosen flagship areas. All ENLIGHT universities will therefore work closely with their cities and regional partners to identify and address societal challenges. Based on these challenges the ENLIGHT universities want to create new learning formats in which students focus on real social issues together with researchers, citizens and companies.

Although the Erasmus+ funding only covers a 3-year project period, the ambition of ENLIGHT reaches much further: by 2030 ENLIGHT wants to create an open space between the nine universities without barriers for learning, teaching and working together across all levels of the ENLIGHT community. It will integrate quality assurance, international outreach and global engagement, talent recruitment and investments in large research infrastructure. In this way, ENLIGHT will be a role model for the transformation of HEIs in Europe.

ENLIGHT and Research: SwafS | Science with and for Society

Parallel to the Erasmus+ project, ENLIGHT was invited to prepare a complementary funding application in the framework of H2020 Science with and for Society.

In the framework of the SwafS proposal ENLIGHT will focus on the development of a joint supportive structure and digital research infrastructure to foster new R&I synergies.

ENLIGHT and education @UGent: university-wide future-proof curricula

ENLIGHT connects multiple dimensions of the education agenda within Ghent University: quality assurance, curriculum development, language policy, diversity, active learning, societal anchoring, lifelong learning and digitization.

Ghent University will therefore use ENLIGHT as the engine for a future-oriented educational innovation to apply the results of the ENLIGHT pilots after the 3-year period and transfer them all study domains.

Call for ENLIGHT initiatives @ Ghent University

Ghent University intends to support joint cooperation activities in education and research between Ghent University and two or more of the eight other ENLIGHT universities.

In the framework of these calls, Ghent University intends to stimulate initiatives for the development of new learning formats and mobility schemes on Ba, Ma and PhD level, that are in accordance with the educational mission of ENLIGHT to innovate and to create more integrated learning opportunities across the network. There will be several calls per year.

More info (guidelines and form)