Epicur
EPICUR: THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE
EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP FOR INNOVATIVE CAMPUS UNIFYING REGIONS
Since June 2019, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań has been a part of EPICUR (European Partnership for Innovative Campus Unifying Regions), which has gained the status of a European University in a competition run by the European Commission. The alliance also includes the University of Strasbourg (project leader), the University of Amsterdam, the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Upper Alsace, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
EPICUR offers a new model of education in the form of innovative programmes that have been created through our collaboration with our partner universities, as well as with our staff and students.
In the future, the EPICUR university will be:
- Physical, virtual and blended, encouraging the free movement of students and staff.
- Multilingual, integrative, and linked to the European Union and its regions.
- Our unified campuses will provide innovative methods of teaching and learning.
- Innovative in research, encouraging researchers and students to make new discoveries and explore new areas.
- Based on supportive and confident management, to ensure long-term sustainable collaboration.
For EPICUR, education is a part of our knowledge quadrangle, along with research, business and society.
New forms of mobility and new opportunities:
EPICUR’s primary aim is to promote mobility for all and in all forms. Through our collaboration we encourage our staff and students to engage in mobility – either physically, through short- or long-term study visits abroad, or virtually, taking advantage of our digital tools.
We also encourage blended mobility, which combines both of the above routes, and shows how regions can become connected.
The Virtual Campus
The building of EPICUR’s virtual campus includes the creation of virtual inter-university courses. The pilot courses are designed by lecturers from the EPICUR universities, and will initially be available to the students of those institutions. One of the innovative elements of these courses is the introduction of EPICUR “mobility credits”, which can be converted into ECTS points awarded by the EPICUR universities.
Multilingualism
The mobility programmes are among the actions taken to promote multilingualism, with the aim of popularizing the idea that Europeans of the new generation will be competent in at least two languages other than their mother tongue. Our efforts to support inclusive language management include the linking of our courses in less widely studied languages, and are closely connected with diversity in teaching and practice, through the inclusion of intercultural competences in our teaching programmes.
EPICUR plans to develop a virtual module for language programmes which will facilitate active engagement and (virtual) interactions among EPICUR students.
Innovative thinking
The EPICUR project is developing innovative, student-centred models of teaching and learning, incorporating teaching approaches and concepts from the Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) educational philosophy.
LAS programmes are by nature interdisciplinary and challenge-based, and give students a high degree of autonomy. Such models include the offering of new courses that are suitable for introduction in the context of other study programmes (other than LAS) at the member universities of the EPICUR alliance.