EAIE 2025: T4EU Voices in Higher Education
Key takeaways from EAIE Gothenburg 2025
About
The Transform4Europe (T4EU) alliance recently participated in the EAIE 2025 Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe’s largest international higher education event. As one of 35 European University Alliances present, the T4EU delegation showcased its collaborative vision for the future of higher education. The following are reflections and key takeaways from some of the delegates who represented the alliance, sharing their insights on the themes of global cooperation, the evolving role of university alliances, and the future challenges and opportunities for the sector.
Voices
Sven Idarand
T4EU Secretary General
It gives us a lot of opportunity to discuss things over with other alliances, and we can clearly see that we share not only the same worries and challenges but also the wins and the things that we do well. I think that cooperation is the key – together we can be stronger than just by ourselves. Being here and the notion of knowledge entrepreneurship has really grown our presence as an alliance not only inside the alliances sphere but also globally.
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The first word that comes to my mind when thinking about EAIE 2025 is ‘global’, because although it’s a European fair, there are lots of global participants here as well. It’s indeed a global event, which is great. The second word would be ‘friendly’, because there are a lot of old friends whom we already know. And for us, this conference is an important milestone as this year we shared the booth with EUNICE, and it’s the first time we’ve collaborated with another alliance. In addition, all the events and everybody are so friendly and nice. I like the atmosphere a lot. Jokingly, the last one would maybe be ‘noisy’, because all of the friendliness and the global nature of the event produce a whirlwind of people, and so this space can become quite noisy. But, of course, it’s all worth it. When it comes to takeaways from this year’s EAIE conference, I have quite a few. First is in regard to alliances. As we are all joined here together, approx. 35 of us close by, it gives us a lot of opportunity to discuss things over with other alliances, and we can clearly see that we share not only the same worries and challenges but also the wins and the things that we do well. It feels very good to be able to exchange experiences and knowledge with others and see how everybody else is presenting them and themselves. This has been a really, really nice experience this year. And the second takeaway would be that we really need to cooperate and, of course, talk with different partners, also those from outside of Europe. Here, at EAIE, it is effortless to do because we can easily meet each other face to face. I think that cooperation is the key – together we can be stronger than just by ourselves. One of the aims that we took when we came here this year was to expand our global network. To achieve that, we, of course, mainly met with our long-time partners that we already know. But it’s a really great opportunity to meet with the universities and partners who happen to see us in our booth or around the event. We have made a lot of new contacts this way, and hopefully those relationships will grow into something bigger in the future. Being here and the notion of knowledge entrepreneurship has really grown our presence as an alliance not only inside the alliances sphere but also globally. It’s really nice to see that partners from, e.g. Mexico, Turkey, and the US understand the concept and what we want to achieve and the steps we take to achieve it. For me, the main takeaway is that Transform4Europe is indeed visible and that we are doing the correct things, as evidenced by the partners who think the same way we do.
Francisco Mendes-Palma
T4EU Steering Committee member
I can’t describe the event in three words. I need to use four – global cooperation for mutual understanding. My main takeaway is that universities and countries are eager to cooperate, and get to know each other better. We need to have a positive and constructive approach not only in Europe but also on a global scale, through knowledge, universities, students, professors, researchers, and staff
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I can’t describe the event in three words. I need to use four – global cooperation for mutual understanding. My main takeaway is that universities and countries are eager to cooperate, and get to know each other better. We need to have a positive and constructive approach not only in Europe but also on a global scale, through knowledge, universities, students, professors, researchers, and staff. That’s what I take from the conference – everyone wants to get to know each other better and work toward a more positive future. The knowledge and connections gained at the EAIE will be very useful. I hope they will make our outreach strategy stronger, as we identified, discussed, and went deeper into the relation with global partners to develop several activities like joint degrees, joint research, and mobility for everyone. It is a very good place for us to engage with those partners and realise that we have to work harder within the Alliance to better know our objectives because we have very relevant global partners waiting for us to make the best of the Alliance and of this global outreach.
Prof. Małgorzata Myśliwiec
T4EU Steering Committee member
The first one is energy. We can see a lot of willingness to cooperate, to be together, to know each other, and to propose new forms of cooperation. The main takeaway for me is the vision of European universities as important actors in European higher education, a very unique form of cooperation that we have developed in our continent, which might be inspiring for other universities around the world. I think that the biggest one in our academic cooperation is artificial intelligence, both in research and education.
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EAIE in three words? The first one is energy. We can see a lot of willingness to cooperate, to be together, to know each other, and to propose new forms of cooperation. This is my first impression. The second one is cooperation. We are here in the area of European universities, so I believe that this word carries a lot of weight here. The third one is future. I think that until now universities were mainly presented as individual entities at this kind of international fair, and now we are presenting ourselves in a more visible way as European universities. The main takeaway for me is the vision of European universities as important actors in European higher education, a very unique form of cooperation that we have developed in our continent, which might be inspiring for other universities around the world. Perhaps it even marks a fresh perspective of cooperation in higher education in general. A university is a place to exchange ideas, a place to inspire and be inspired by others, and it is also a way to have our results verified by other researchers and other people involved in education. In my opinion, this is the most important part of this year’s fair. The conference made me identify a few challenges. I think that the biggest one in our academic cooperation is artificial intelligence, both in research and education. We will have to discuss how to deal with it, and how to treat it as a tool that helps rather than an obstacle that hinders our cooperation. On the other hand, when considering European universities as large campuses, without such tools our cooperation might not have been possible. I think that it should be a more prominent topic next year in Glasgow.
Prof. Michaël Mrissa
T4EU Steering Committee member
The three words that instantly come to mind when thinking about EAIE 2025 are: strategic, network, and collaboration. This year, the conference once again proved to be a major gathering for higher education institutions across Europe, with alliances now firmly established as core elements of the event and core drivers of cooperation. At the same time, while the European budget is not growing as expected and poses a challenge to the development of international mobility, I’ve noticed that blended intensive programme mobility is becoming increasingly popular.
Aleš Oven
T4EU Steering Committee member
I’m quite happy to see the developments, especially in the area of future financial programming in the European Union. I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved here. We’ve managed to finalise the talks with Oregon State University, which will become a partner of the T4EU. This will really be a fantastic chance for our students to collaborate with their American colleagues and for US students to experience what T4EU has to offer.
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I would say networking, respect, and tiredness – these are the very first three words about the EAIE 2025 that come to my mind. The conference is full of lovely people, lovely partnerships, and the programme is brimming with events. I’m quite happy to see the developments, especially in the area of future financial programming in the European Union. It’s great to take a deep dive into the thinking process behind the future of our higher education on our continent. We seem to have quite a busy year ahead of us, the more that we want to put our ideas and initiatives in motion. I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved here. We’ve managed to finalise the talks with Oregon State University, which will become a partner of the T4EU. The last step is just to sign the agreement – we’ve already settled all the specifics and opportunities, specifically for our students. This will really be a fantastic chance for our students to collaborate with their American colleagues and for US students to experience what T4EU has to offer. It’s so good to be here, be part of the Alliance and of this entire initiative and community. I think this year has really increased the visibility of the T4EU and also increased its partnership-building capacity.
Alain Trouillet
T4EU Steering Committee member
The three words that best describe EAIE 2025 are: perspectives, diversity, human-sized. What I’ve noticed right away is that while the world is rapidly changing and perspectives are changing along with it, European University Alliances are becoming increasingly visible and non-European partners are showing more and more interest in these alliances and the innovative perspectives that they propose. EAIE serves as a great opportunity to meet new partners and strengthen the already existing partnerships. I’m sure I will come back from the conference with lots of new ideas and collaboration opportunities.
Lukas Redemann
Coordinator of the Transform4Europe Alliance at Saarland University
If I could describe EAIE 2025 in three words, I would say inspiring, mind-blowing, overwhelming. My main takeaway was that I think the T4EU is already performing very well as an alliance and I’m happy to share our best practices with the others. For me, it means that after a discussion, you don’t just forget what you’ve talked about and return to your daily work, but that you really think about what you can do to go out and create something from the ideas you’ve just got.
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If I could describe EAIE 2025 in three words, I would say inspiring, mind-blowing, overwhelming. My main takeaway was that I think the T4EU is already performing very well as an alliance and I’m happy to share our best practices with the others. At the same time, another takeaway is that even if we are doing quite well, we can still learn from how other alliances solve their issues. It’s always good to feel that we share the same challenges and obstacles. It gives you the sense that you are not alone in what lies ahead of you. I like this year’s theme—‘Go-Create’—reflected in the meetings and discussions. For me, it means that after a discussion, you don’t just forget what you’ve talked about and return to your daily work, but that you really think about what you can do to go out and create something from the ideas you’ve just got. I already have some ideas in mind on how the topics that we came up with during the discussions can be shared from our side with, for example, the other universities that are members of alliances in Germany. And to really go out and create something with all the input we have got here.
