Sharing visions towards a fair, sustainable and peaceful future: a gist of the first EC2U Students Week
Between the 2nd and 4th of May, Coimbra welcomed 110 students from 9 European universities for the first EC2U Students Week.
English version: Diana Taborda
Between the 2nd and the 4th of May, Coimbra welcomed 110 students from 9 European universities in the scope of the first EC2U Students Week.
“When I got the invitation for this project I thought that this would be another step for my involvement in this international community of students. And I think it is really a great opportunity, especially for Lviv University, because we are a strategic partner of the EC2U Alliance”.
“First of all, I have to say that I really wanted to be here. I was in class and when I saw this, I immediately thought it was a unique opportunity. I took four days off from work to be here”.
“When I opened the email and read "Coimbra, Portugal"... I had never been to Portugal before and I really wanted to visit it, I wanted to get to know the atmosphere of this country and this city”.
This is how Maria Tatsynets, Kouma Rémi Itiblitse and Yasmina Andaloussi expressed their excitement about participating in the first EC2U Students Week, organised by the University of Coimbra (UC), in partnership with the Coimbra City Council (CMC), the Coimbra Students’ Unions/Coimbra Academic Association (AAC) and the Coimbra Erasmus Student Network (ESN Coimbra).
The event brought together students from the 7 EC2U Alliance (European Campus of City-Universities) partner universities: UC, University of Poitiers (France), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, University of Salamanca (Spain), University of Pavia (Italy) and the University of Turku (Finland).
The 100 students from the EC2U universities were joined by 5 students from the University of Linz (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria), which joined the alliance in the recent call for funding from the European Commission, as well as 5 students from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine) − an EC2U partner since April 2022 − who have been awarded grants by the University of Coimbra to attend this initiative.
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Kouma Rémi Itiblitse, from the University of Poitiers, always wanted to go on Erasmus but eventually never did, so this was a unique opportunity. "I thought this was an excellent opportunity to meet other people from other countries, other students like me, and I didn't have to go to Ukraine, Finland, or Portugal to meet students from those countries," he says.
“I think that the main goal is to spread awareness, share the issues that we tackle on a daily basis and which we should deal with, and to see what is important nowadays”, says Maria Tatsynets, from the University of Lviv. “It’s not just about social media, which show us only what is “trendy”, we can meet each other in person and come up with solutions for these issues”.
“What was different about this meeting was that they first got us to know each other and take part in different activities, like canoeing, which I had never done before in my life!”, says Yasmina Andaloussi, a student from the University of Pavia. Yasmina adds that for her, another significant part of the event "was the debate we had on what it means for us to be a European student, because sometimes we take for granted the privilege we have as European Union students, and to see so many people talking about the privilege they feel and how much they like being university students in Europe filled my heart".
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“EC2U is an Alliance on which I strongly set my hopes, and in 10 years’ time it will certainly be an important alliance”, claims the Rector of the University of Coimbra, Amílcar Falcão, further adding that “it has the solid support of the European Union and has been held up as an example of good practices. This Alliance plays a crucial role in the future of European mobility for higher education students”.
“Hosting the first major EC2U student meeting in Coimbra is a great joy to us and a great honour as well. This shows that, three years into the creation of the EC2U Alliance, we already have many students involved in the activities, not only from the Alliance universities, but also from guest universities such as Linz and Lviv”, highlights the Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra for External Relations and Alumni, João Nuno Calvão da Silva.
The Mayor, José Manuel Silva, notes that events like the EC2U Students Week “are crucial to European integration, and they are also vital for the establishment of Coimbra as a European city that aims to play a role in European development and in reinforcing the European spirit”.
EC2U coordinator Ludovic Thilly points out that the Alliance fosters this and other activities “so that students can learn from each other and build an Alliance where people are truly connected”.
Filipe Rocha, the Alliance coordinator at the University of Coimbra stresses the importance of the event, since “this is the first time that EC2U students get together in an event fully dedicated to them, with cultural and sports activities, as well as debates to reflect on Europe, what it means to be a European student, and also about sustainability issues”.
EC2U - European Campus of University Cities is a multicultural and multilingual European university alliance coordinated by the University of Poitiers, which aims to develop an open and innovative space allowing free mobility between universities and cities. The Alliance is based on a unique cooperation involving academic communities, municipalities, local authorities, economic and social stakeholders and citizens.