The Politecnico di Milano has joined ENHANCE, an alliance of seven major European science and engineering universities, established to strengthen the education sector in Europe. The ENHANCE alliance, born under the auspices of the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus + programme, aims to create a new type of close cooperation network destined to develop innovative learning methods and the active involvement of civil society at all levels through the physical and virtual mobility of students and staff.
These are the universities that have joined ENHANCE: Technische Universität Berlin (coordinator), Warsaw University of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, RWTH Aachen University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and Universitat Politècnica de València.
Following the signing of the financing agreement by the European Commission on 28 October, the rectors of the universities involved held their first online meeting on 4 November 2020 to discuss best practices and future development prospects in the European Union.
ENHANCE promotes responsible social transformation by strengthening a strong alliance between European technical universities, enabling science and technology to be developed and put to the service of society with a view to transforming global challenges into opportunities. A necessity that has become all the more important during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The objective of the alliance is to lay the foundations for the construction of a barrier-free European education space, within which students, teachers, staff will be able to move freely, as if they were part of a single European institution: One Campus.
The role of the Politecnico di Milano, in particular, is to implement the concept of One Campus, allowing students, for example, to choose which courses to attend in order to obtain their qualification, regardless of the site of the Enhance partner where these are delivered. Credits earned abroad will be automatically recognized, since the degree programs will have previously agreed on a Learning Goals and Learning Outcomes framework, according to which to describe the training offer.
Students will then be able to make use of a competence mapping tool, which will offer them the courses available for the acquisition of the skills necessary for obtaining the degree, and will allow them to monitor their university career in terms of completing the agreed objectives.
Together with civil society, students, and political decision-makers, ENHANCE intends to find innovative solutions to eliminate the usual legal, financial, and administrative barriers to European cooperation, avoiding complex structures and organisations, promoting simplicity and following a gradual approach.
This article was first published by Politecnico di Milano.
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