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YUFE Academy Autumn 2025
Does the length of comfortable silence depend on culture? Can loss of smell be an early symptom of dementia? What is the scientific value of memes? You can learn about these and many other things during the upcoming edition of YUFE Academy – an international series of open lectures given by experts from partner universities.
With YUFE, knowledge comes from trusted sources in a truly European classroom. What's more, participants can join sessions both online and on-site.
The autumn edition begins at the end of September and covers a wide range of themes – from the impact of technology on learning and research to the hidden costs of urbanisation and climate change.
On 17 October, Nicolaus Copernicus University will host the webinar “Houston, we have a climatic problem!" as part of the Academy. Dr Aleksandra Pospieszyńska from the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management will address key questions on climate change, asking whether humanity is the undeniable cause of rising temperatures or merely a witness to natural cycles beyond our control.
Communication in an international environment is also vital in European alliances like YUFE. This theme will be explored the 'Lost in Translation: Between Language Diversity and Relativism' lecture hosted by University of Rijeka and in October, when the Academy teams up with the YUFE International Café for a hot drink and an even hotter debate on how cultural differences shape communication. On Thursday, 23 October, Małgorzata Grudzińska – a mentor with over 20 years of experience in international academia – will give the lecture “Say What?! Understanding Communication through Culture". The lecture will be followed by a workshop designed to raise awareness of how cultural perspectives influence language perception. The event will take place online and in person at the Copernicus Integration Centre, 16a Olszewskiego Street.
Participation in the YUFE Academy is free of charge, but registration is required. The full offer is available on the YUFE Virtual Campus.
More information about the initiative is available at the YUFE website.
YUFE is one of 65 consortia selected by the European Commission to build and test the European University model - open, non-elitist and inclusive, and promoting innovation, interdisciplinarity and the highest quality in research and education. YUFE is made up of ten dynamic, young, student-centred research universities (with over 190,000 students and more than 32,000 employees) and 2 non-academic partners focused on higher education, the labour market and entrepreneurship. YUFE members work together to promote their educational programmes, develop mechanisms to facilitate student and employee mobility, and create a model of higher education that is borderless yet well-embedded in the local context, responsive to changes in society and the labour market. YUFE seeks to strengthen the idea of lifelong learning, emphasizing the values of multiculturalism, multilingualism and European integration.
