In early April, rectors, vice-rectors, management representatives and students from the member universities of the European University for Well-Being (EUniWell) gathered at Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden for the 5th EUniWell Rectors’ Assembly.
The aim of the biannual meeting was to define the strategic building blocks for the period up to the second funding phase of the European University for Well-Being and beyond. The Rectors’ Assembly was invited to consider and confirm EUniWell’s priorities in key areas, such as mobility, entrepreneurship and innovation, and supporting the next generation of teachers, researchers and students, to develop strategies and a timeline for implementation.
EUniWell Alliance includes the University of Birmingham (UK), the University of Florence (Italy), the University of Konstanz (Germany), the University of Cologne (Germany), Linnaeus University (Sweden), the University of Murcia (Spain), Nantes Université (France), the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Semmelweis University (Hungary) and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine).
As a new partner university of the Alliance, the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) has also attended the 5th Rectors’ Assembly as the French university officially joins EUniWell in this month.
With Inalco, EUniWell Alliance now counts 11 member universities and more than 330,000 students and almost 60,000 university staff members among its network.
Alongside the Rectors’ Assembly, and with the participation of high-ranking representatives of the Alliance, the European University of Well-Being held its third annual FestiWell on 3–4 April 2023. FestiWell celebrates the cooperation between universities within the Alliance once a year by bringing together students, researchers, faculty and staff from all EUniWell universities for joint events ranging from cultural activities to educational events and networking formats. Taking place for the first time as an in-person event that unites participants from all partner universities at a single site, namely Linnaeus University’s Växjö Campus, this year’s FestiWell was themed “Upskill, Connect and Celebrate!”. Inspired by the European Union’s announcement of 2023 as the European Year of Skills, FestiWell 2023 therefore focused on offering a variety of workshops, lectures and activities to explore the importance of developing academic, communicative and creative skills, among others. The overarching themes of the two-day event were entrepreneurship, digitalisation, employability, and soft skills. Well-being and social activities round off the program.
The event was attended by Prof. Béla Merkely, Rector, Prof. Miklós Kellermayer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and EUniWell project leader, Dr. Marcel Pop, Director of International Relations and strategic leader of the EUniWell project, Dr. Ádám Orosz, Attila Matiscsák, Eszter Turopoli, EUniWell project managers, Sloan Kudrinko and Karina Kovács, EUniWell Student Board members, as well as the students who organized the EUniWell Mental Health Symposium in Budapest in October 2022, in conjunction with the 4th Rectors’ Assembly, and the Semmelweis students of the EUniWell School Ambassador Program.
Current EUniWell opportunities
EUniWell has launched its next call for online research workshops via the Well-Being Research Incubator program. Researchers are invited to put forward proposals to run collaborative workshops on topics relating to EUniWell research areas: 1, Well-being and health, 2, Individual and social well-being, 3, Environment, urbanity and well-being, 4, Teacher education. The grants are up to €10,000 or up to €25,000 per project and the application period is between 5 April and 26 May 2023. The aim of the initiative is to build professional cooperation and hold a professional workshop in cooperation with at least 3 partner universities. For further information register for the online information session on 27 April at 15:00 CEST.
The EUniWell Summer School on Health Inequalities to be held at the University of Birmingham from 26-30 June 2023, will bring together students, early-career researchers, health and social care professionals as well as policy makers from across our EUniWell universities. Starting with the basics of how we define health inequalities and the landmark studies on this topic, over the course of the week participants will look deeper into the different types of inequalities and their impact on specific population groups, as well as policies and approaches to address them. Registration is open till 30 April.
The first EUniWell Blended Intensive Programme will include a one-week intensive Intercomprehension course in Florence, Italy, preceded by online lessons. The aim of the course is to quickly learn to understand 5 other languages of the same family. Further details and applications are available on the EUniWell website by 5 May.
For more information, you can contact the members of the EUniWell team.
Eszter Turopoli (Directorate of International Relations)
Photo: EUniWell
