The European Universities Initiative (EUI): Accomplishments and Challenges

Launched by the European Commission in 2018, The European Universities Initiative (EUI) now stands at a more mature stage in its development. This provides an opportunity to acknowledge the accomplishments of the EUI, as well as consider the challenges facing the initiative. This chapter explores the incremental implementation of the EUI through five rounds of expansion alongside the need to consolidate the alliances created to ensure they have a sustainable future. Following this, it considers how the network of networks structure—a series of self-contained, unique alliances developed using a bottom-up approach, which are united through their membership of a top-down strategic scheme with common overarching aims and objectives—adopted for the EUI has worked in practice and continues to evolve. The achievements of the EUI are then considered by the three missions of the university: teaching, research, and externally orientated. This reveals how the alliances have delivered a wide range of activities that align with the original ambitions of the scheme, such as seamless and virtual mobility and the commitment to ‘a challenge approach’—where education and research respond to real-world challenges. Progress has also been made on the complex issues of the European degree and a legal identity of the alliances. However, as the chapter notes, it will take time for the full impact of the EUI to be known. Moreover, the long-term financial sustainability of all the alliances created by the EUI remains in question.