VISION AND MISSION
EucA: your University College in Europe!
The European university college Association was founded in 2008 to bring together and represent University Colleges and network of Colleges in Europe.
The aim was to exchange experiences and best practices, facilitating the students with new international opportunities.
From our founding partners, Italy, Poland, UK and Spain, the Association has gradually enlarged to 17 countries and represents today the excellence of the European University Colleges, becoming a landmark for the 'Student Affairs and Services’ in Europe.
Based in Brussels, EucA’s ambition is to enrich the academic and professional development for students through non-formal and informal activities in the fields of employability, soft skills, international mobility and responsible citizenship.
Thanks to its membership in leading professional associations of Student Affairs and Services as NASPA, EucA offers also services to Colleges’ Directors and Professionals. Thus they are facilitated in the delivering of the desired learning outcomes for the students through support in internationalization, best practices sharing, and professional development.
Vision
Make internationalization part of the everyday experience of European higher education.
Mission
Offer quality international learning experiences and exchanges to European students and student affairs professionals to support their holistic growth.
CHARTER OF PRINCIPLES
The role of the University Colleges (UC) within the European space of higher education
Introduction
The UC have strong roots in Europe. Their individual histories are different but they have a common objective.
Their creation dates back to an ancient medieval tradition from the beginning of the twelfth century. At that point in time, the first UC are born, and so they belong to the history of the European university since the beginning and also partially to that of modern western culture.
The main objective of the UC is to foster social promotion based more on merit than on origin and to provide specific support to deserving students with the aim of helping them during their time at university and beyond, by preparing them for the job market.
The UC offers students a whole range of high-quality residences. They help students obtain better results from their university studies through various complementary and supplementary programmes (scientific, vocational, academic, etc) and tutoring activities to widen their university education.
The signing of the Memorandum of understanding between the “Conferenza dei Collegi universitari italiani (CCU)” and the Spanish “Consejo de Colegios Mayores” (CCM) in September 2005 was the first official act of EUCA (European University College Association) and has allowed these two national associations of colleges to set up their cooperation.
The main objectives are: (1) to promote cooperation agreements among international organizations, (2) to foster the internationalization of national university systems following the scope of the “Process of Bologna” for the construction of a European Space of Higher Education by 2010.
This Memorandum has then been extended in May 2006 by a Letter of Intent between the CCU and the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), and by the Congress “I Collegi universitari per una cittadinanza europea : esperienze a confronto” (July 2006), with the participation of the Netherhall Educational Association (NEA) which in May 2007 signed the Letter of Intent with the intention of becoming member of EUCA.
These agreements have marked the beginning of the creation of a trans-European network.
Identification
The UC are university centres which maintain a close relationship with the academic world. They not only offer high-quality services but also represent an added value to the students in terms of the formational, tutoring and vocational guidance opportunities offered to them. They have an educational project, run in close cooperation with university teaching staff and highly personalised.
All this is helped by private and common spaces, training and leisure facilities, which encourage social interaction, teamwork and sense of responsibility in the students – elements which are of great use for later social and working life.
Thus, the UC are highly privileged interdisciplinary and multicultural spaces for university formation where students can grow and learn to carry out their responsibilities in life. They are a kind of “community of knowledge”.
Objectives
The UC members of EUCA have the following objectives.
1. Promoting mutual awareness among existing colleges and fostering the spread of the college model in cooperation with the organizations proposed by the European Union.
2. Laying out propositions to be submitted to the institutions of the European Union and to legislative, administrative and academic organizations in order to achieve a wider acknowledgement and to enhance the role of UC within the University.
3. Developing projects for the promotion of the European educational system at the international level.
4. Improving the exchange programmes and student and staff mobility by widening the community programmes within the framework of a European Space of Formation.
5. Organizing congresses and signing agreements between organizations representing the academic, professional and business world, including the third sector.
6. Encouraging, especially through students, active European citizenship capable of promoting intercultural dialogue.
