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YUFE Town Hall in Bremen
To mark the University's 50th anniversary, the annual YUFE Alliance meeting is being held in Bremen on October 13 and 14, 2021. Among others, political representatives of the respective YUFE regions will attend.
Young, innovative, and strong in research: ten universities and four non-academic partners are shaping a European university in the form of the YUFE Alliance (Young Universities for the Future of Europe). To mark the University of Bremen's 50th anniversary, the alliance's annual meeting is taking place in Bremen on October 13 and 14, 2021. The Mayor of Bremen, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, will attend along with the Bremen Senator for Science, Dr. Claudia Schilling. Political representatives from other YUFE regions will also be present.
“We are very pleased that our partners are coming to Bremen to celebrate our 50th anniversary and that we can finally see each other again in person after a long period of digital communication," says the President of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter. “We have already set the wheels in motion to shape a European university with YUFE in the coming years. Together we can educate young people who think and live in a European way across our ten university locations."
The Chair of the YUFE Alliance, Professor Martin Paul of the University of Maastricht, adds: “YUFE stands for a radical change in higher education
The meeting with about 60 participants in Bremen is taking place within the framework of the annual Town Hall Meeting. Here, university leaders and staff have the chance to meet and discuss things outside of the regular YUFE meeting schedule. In the future it is planned for there also to be opportunities for interested members of the public. This year's event has been organized together with the annual YUFE Mayors' Meeting. This is intended to contribute to deepening the exchange between YUFE partners and the political representatives of the YUFE locations. With that in mind, the Mayor of Bremen, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, and Senator for Science, Dr. Claudia Schilling, will also take part.
The first Town Hall and YUFE Mayors' Meeting was held in January 2020 at Maastricht University, which is leading the project. In the winter semester 2020/21, another Town Hall Meeting was organized digitally due to the pandemic.
Dr. Claudia Schilling, Senator for Science and Ports, says: “Thinking outside the box, thinking in a European way, that is the idea behind YUFE. Young students from the University of Bremen learn together with students from Maastricht, Essex, and Antwerp, for example. And it is not just the students who are part of this European network, but also researchers and employees of the University of Bremen." YUFE offers excellent opportunities for the internationalization of the participating universities and therefore also provides the chance to deepen international scientific cooperation. “This is exactly how I envision universities of the future: Students, researchers, and administrative staff can all build deeper networks with international partners and benefit from each other's knowledge and experience," adds Schilling. “With YUFE, something European is being created, the principle of thinking outside the box is being institutionalized, and there is enormous potential for innovative teaching approaches and excellent research."
“Research and teaching are the keys to meeting almost every challenge of the future," says the Mayor of Bremen, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte. “It is therefore necessary to support young people in the best possible way, to discover and develop their talents and abilities, and to offer them the best possible education. And to do so irrespective of their background or the wealth of their parents. Internationality and networking are becoming increasingly important. That's why I very much welcome the founding of YUFE and am pleased that the University of Bremen is part of this network."
YUFE, i.e. Young Universities for the Future of Europe, is one of 41 alliences selected by the European Commission to build and test the European University model - open, non-elitist and integrating various environments, as well as promoting innovation, interdisciplinarity and the highest quality in research and education. YUFE is made up of ten dynamic, young, student-centred research universities (with a total of over 190,000 students and over 32,000 staff) and four non-academic partners working in higher education, the labour market and entrepreneurship. YUFE members work together to promote their educational programmes, develop mechanisms to facilitate student and staff 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 aims to reinforce the idea of lifelong learning, emphasising the values of multiculturalism, multilingualism and European integration. The pilot edition of the project will run until December 2022.
