ACROSS Summit at University of Craiova

The plenary and panel meetings were attended by all ten member universities: University of Craiova, Bialystock University of Technology, Chemnitz University of Technology, University of Girona, University of Lleida, University of Perpignan via Domitia, Rezekne Academy of Technologies, the University of Ruse, the University of Nova Gorica and the University of Udine.

The main directions of focus for the three-day discussions of the ACROSS partners were digitalization, dissemination, and monitoring. The participating members, both onsite and online, agreed to establish an action plan for better promoting and building awareness of the consortium’s common goals in the transdisciplinary fields of "Education in Cross-Border Contexts", "Culture, Identity, Heritage", "Economic and Social Development" and "Management of Natural Resources".

The digitalization strategy aims at sketching the path towards a digital ecosystem of the alliance - the Across E-Campus. In this regard, the panelists laid out criteria for digital tools (e.g. learning and research platforms, communication and collaboration tools) to be viable on a European scale. It was agreed that a mapping of existing tools and expertise at each university will be carried out and a group of experts from IT departments of ACROSS members and other areas will be introduced to guide the design of the E-Campus.

The goal of the alliance’s communication strategy is to position the consortium in the EU higher education area (and beyond), targeting both internal and external stakeholder groups and disseminating what it stands for, as well as its activities and achievements to the wider community. The contributors identified creative ways to promote the alliance’s mission and objectives, such as a “Cross-Border Open Day” to be organized synchronous in all ten partner universities, innovative social media solutions, the extension of the network of collaborators etc.

The participants to the meetings also set up a goal to identify the indicators that positively affect the successful integration of ACROSS graduates in the common European job market. Meeting that goal will allow the alliance a targeted and flexible response to socio-cultural, environmental, or technological challenges in designing mobility routes and new joint programs. An action plan for relevant data collection was drafted making use of open source survey results that track the current fit between competences acquired in existing autonomous programs in each partner institution and graduates’ successful placement into a satisfying career path.

ACROSS Department of Communication and Public Relations