European university alliances are regarded as ambitious projects in European education policy. They are intended to bring universities closer together, develop joint degree programmes and strengthen research across national borders. At the same time, engagement with society is becoming increasingly significant as a bridge between academia, professional practice and the public.
For the past three years, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg has been part of the EU GREEN alliance. Rector Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan and EU GREEN Coordinator Dr. Anne Herbik explain what has changed since then, what opportunities are opening up, and why a European campus cannot be created overnight.
Why does a university need such a close-knit European network today?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: We see ourselves as an international university. At the same time, we are currently witnessing global political developments that are bringing Europe closer together. Particularly in science and research, we see that Europe is losing ground to the U.S. and China in important fields of the future. This makes it all the more important to pool expertise and develop joint solutions. Dynamic topics such as data protection, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence can no longer be viewed solely from a national perspective. For this, we need strong European network, and that is exactly what EU GREEN offers as the right platform.
What makes a university alliance better than traditional international collaborations?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: An alliance creates a sense of commitment. It fosters mobility not only among students, but also among faculty, researchers, and administrative staff. For example, it would have been almost unthinkable in the past for experts from different fields at a partner university to come to Magdeburg together. Above all, however, we can work together to further develop our academic offerings. Some highly specialised degree programmes would be nearly impossible to implement at a single university. In an alliance, we pool expertise from multiple countries. This results in degree programmes with genuine added European value.
How can you already tell today that EU GREEN has become part of everyday life?
Dr. Anne Herbik: To be honest, EU GREEN hasn’t yet fully become part of everyday university life. But that’s completely normal. We’re evolving into a European campus, and a transformation process like this takes time. At the same time, we’re already seeing significant progress. Mobility between partner universities is noticeably increasing. Students, faculty, and staff are showing growing interest in spending time at the other universities. Interest in joint research projects is also on the rise.
An important milestone for us this year was the Board of Rectors meeting in Magdeburg, where the rectors of all partner universities came together. At the same time, we hosted staff from the administrative department of the French university in Angers. That is exactly what this is all about: not only connecting research and teaching, but also the administrative areas. This is how joint projects and long-term structures emerge. We’re also noticing that the exchange is developing in both directions. More and more often, our partner universities are asking for advice or support. This shows that the alliance is gradually becoming an established part of our daily lives.
What role does EU GREEN now play in the university’s strategic development?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: A very significant one. EU GREEN is firmly anchored in our new university development plan through 2030. The University of Magdeburg aims to continue developing as a network university with regional roots, European connections, and international visibility. Research, academic programmes, knowledge transfer, and administration are to be considered even more closely as an integrated whole.
Didn’t this network-based approach already exist before?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: Of course. International collaborations have long been a part of a modern university. Today, however, we must take them to a new level. Competition for the best minds, ideas, and funding is intensifying. That is why we must strategically combine our strengths and invest where we excel academically while also generating significant benefits for the region. EU GREEN helps us do this because the alliance already provides shared structures and rules. This aligns perfectly with our strategic direction.
What does this mean in light of the next Excellence Strategy?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: By the end of 2027, we aim to define the development pathways for the next round of the Excellence Strategy. To this end, we plan to integrate existing expertise more closely, for example, through a cross-faculty AI center with a shared technical and methodological infrastructure. We are also considering a pool of tenured positions to attract outstanding early-career researchers at an early stage and to establish new fields of research more quickly. Such initiatives benefit significantly from strong international networks such as EU GREEN.
Dr. Anne Herbik: This opens up new opportunities, especially for younger researchers. Those who establish international contacts early on and develop joint projects are often better positioned to successfully secure external funding later on.
To what extent has Europe made its way onto campus by now – and where do you still see room for improvement?
Dr. Anne Herbik: Europe is making its way onto campus step by step. We notice this particularly clearly in administrative processes and in our collaboration with partner universities. More and more often, we’re looking at how other universities solve challenges and adopting good ideas. We’re currently taking a very close look at how far other European University Alliances have come, what solutions they’ve developed, and what can be applied to our university. Conversely, our partners are just as interested in our approaches. It’s precisely this intensive exchange within the 73 alliances that has now formed that is such a great asset: universities learn from one another, share experiences, and develop new ideas together. This has never existed before to this extent, and especially not on this scale. For example, if students at another alliance or university can complete all necessary steps through a single digital process, we should ask ourselves what we can adopt from this, while also having the courage to blaze our own new, experimental trails where appropriate.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: We also need this development to remain competitive in the race for international students. Currently, only about six percent of our international students come from the EU. We would like to significantly increase this percentage. Given demographic trends in particular, we face intense competition across Europe for young talent. That is why we must create attractive conditions for studying while also streamlining processes. It’s not just about numbers, but also about how we collaborate, communicate, and continue to develop our structures.
So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time?
Dr. Anne Herbik: Exactly. That’s what European university alliances are for. If a partner university has already developed a good solution, we should use it instead of starting from scratch. These synergies are explicitly intended and help us make enormous progress.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: On top of that, solutions are often easier to transfer within Europe. While our higher education systems differ in details, they’re based on comparable values and framework conditions. That makes collaboration much easier than partnerships with universities on other continents.
Nine universities from different countries are collaborating in EU GREEN. What are the biggest challenges?
Dr. Anne Herbik: Technically, much of this has long been possible — legal requirements or organisational processes are often the deciding factors. That’s why we must continually decide together: Which structures will we create jointly, and which areas will remain the responsibility of the individual universities?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: Transformation takes time. Common rules don’t emerge overnight. Trust grows through collaboration. Only once structures have become established can partnerships reach their full potential.
Was there a moment when you thought: “Now this European collaboration is really working”?
Dr. Anne Herbik: From the very beginning, I was convinced that an alliance like EU GREEN makes sense. A key moment for me was the meeting of the Board of Rectors here in Magdeburg. During those days, it was clear that this was no longer just a gathering of representatives from different universities, but of people who know one another and are working together on a shared vision.
If we were to have this conversation again in two years—how would you know that EU GREEN has taken the next step in its development?
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Strackeljan: By the fact that significantly more students within the alliance are taking advantage of mobility opportunities and, as a matter of course, completing part of their studies at a partner university. I hope that joint study programmes will be established and will become a natural part of everyday university life. It would be particularly important to me that our international students also take greater advantage of these opportunities. Many of them have already taken a big step by coming to Magdeburg to study. Opening up further prospects for them within Europe would be a great benefit. In research as well, I hope that we will be even more successful in jointly securing European funding and building new scientific networks.
Dr. Anne Herbik: For me, the most important step would be for EU GREEN to no longer be perceived as a project, but rather as a natural part of our everyday university life. Then there would no longer be just individual pilot projects, but permanently functioning joint structures—in academic affairs, research, and administration.
