AUTHOR: CAMILA DE EPALZA AZQUETA
This year 2020 and 70th anniversary of the Schumann Declaration, as the President of the European Commission recalled in her speech on 9 May Europe Day, “We are going through a moment of fragility for Europe, and we need more audacity to face these challenges. On our continent, more than 100,000 people have died from coronavirus in recent months. Hundreds of millions of people are facing unprecedented restrictions in their daily lives to help contain the spread of the virus… Only a strong European Union can protect our citizenship, as well as our common heritage and the economies of our Member States.” More than ever, the European Union’s motto “united in diversity” can be combined with “united in adversity”.
The pandemic has fully affected European education and education model with the closure of schools and training in much of EU states, moving classrooms and schools to online format, and leading universities/teachers/researchers/managers and university staff to reinvent themselves in the short and long term and students to adapt to the digital model. Digital education in the European Union was already taking place very limitedly, but the sudden need created by crises has unexpectedly pushed universities to jump into digital, overcoming many limitations in order to be able to have virtual platforms active in a very limited time.
The digital educational model itself and the tools and new skills/specializations are gaining strength, and the traditional model of European mobility that is promoted through the projects and initiatives within the framework of the Erasmus and Horizon Europe Programmes, as well as the frameworks of educational and scale “credits”, dual education, among others, becomes in a certain parenthesis. As Marya Gabriel, the European Commissioner responsible for education, innovation and research, pointed out, despite the challenges, it is necessary to take this opportunity to further analyse the importance and intrinsic value of digital teaching models and to assess the resulting experiences in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to invest and research more on good practices in virtual teaching models, as it is not enough to put teachers in front of a camera to give quality teaching online.
The role of the university
Universities have a truly central role to play in the development of innovative creative solutions for many of the social and global challenges we face today as a society, as well as those of the current European and international agenda (Sustainable Development Goals) and context against COVID-19 and its short- and long-term consequences. It is key to pay attention to European and international agendas, and to closely follow the role of education and research that will have in the strategic axes of the present European Union in relation to the European Green Pact and the European Digital Agenda.
Different experts and the European institutions themselves say this clearly: it is necessary to ask what kind of skills, experience or knowledge people would need to be able to effectively solve these global challenges. In this reflection and proposals, the European Commission is promoting a dialogue with different European networks that bring together European universities, but always capitalizing on the work already done and outstanding initiatives such as “European universities” (alliances of European universities, of which Basque universities are nominated), as well as projects under the Erasmus Programme or even Erasmus Mundus Masters with Basque participation.
Dialogue
In this dialectical and new narrative for the future of European education and education for the future of Europe, the European Union more than ever advocates a dialogue of the educational family with the social and economic actors of the regional and geographical ecosystem, and even prioritizing Euroregions/cross-border cooperation, to jointly respond to social challenges. The necessary excellence and prestige of European education that marks the forthcoming Skills Agenda of the European Union and the current Smart Specialization Strategy, is not at odds with the so-called quad-helix, nor with the European university-enterprise strategy of which the Basque Country is a successful European partner. On the other hand, interdisciplinary work in challenge-based approaches, while not neglecting specialization, would be a role model for training and developing future professionals with educational experience, including collaborations between social and economic sectors, providing sustainable solutions and in collaboration with other European and international universities.
Aligning with the goals of global challenges requires new approaches to work. Cooperation and innovation in teaching methods, collaboration and the creation of a proactive, multidisciplinary learning environment will be key points to adapt to the demands of the future.
