Entitled Beyond Resilience: How European Higher Education is Preparing for the Future, the three-day event was co-organised by the University of Warsaw and Britain’s Times Higher Education magazine.
The summit explored ways how Europe’s higher education institutions “continue to play a pivotal role in the recovery, unification and progression of societies across Europe and beyond,” according to organisers.
Times Higher Education magazine noted that the higher education sector had “a unique position at the junction of education, research and innovation.”
It stressed that, amid the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, economic instability and the continued fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the world needed the contribution of universities “more than ever.”
Platform for conversations and debates
In his speech to the 2023 Europe Universities Summit, Alojzy Z. Nowak, rector of the University of Warsaw, emphasised the importance of international league tables in driving the performance of higher-education institutions.
He said: “Rankings motivate universities to reach higher positions and achieve better results.”
Nowak hailed the summit as an event that “facilitates conversations and debates between scientists, universities and the socio-economic environment.”
He told the gathering: “As a research university we plan to collaborate with institutions from Europe and the rest of the world. The university should be a place of developing new competences, a platform for sharing experiences and opinions.”
Young University Rankings 2023
On Monday, the 2023 Europe Universities Summit saw the unveiling of the Young University Rankings 2023, followed by a discussion about the role of young universities in Europe, according to officials.
Partnerships with Ukrainian universities
On Tuesday, one of the highlights was a panel discussion on the UK-Ukraine Twinning Initiative, a programme to facilitate partnerships between Ukrainian and British universities, organisers said.
Alla Tsipov, Vice–Rector for International, Social and Humanitarian Issues at Kherson State University in southern Ukraine, told the conference about how her institution had teamed up with the University of Kent in southeastern England, leading to joint projects on the history of Ukraine, among other topics.
AI and higher education
Tuesday also saw a debate on “artificial intelligence and innovative technological tools,” according to officials.
Robert Grey, chancellor of the University of Warsaw, said: “The University of Warsaw puts an emphasis on digitisation on various levels. The University should be open for various innovations, such as ChatGPT.”
He added: “Applying artificial intelligence is undoubtedly an achievement, but we should remember that the final decision is made by people and the machine only facilitates this process.”
Other speakers included Gabriela Allmi, Senior Director EMEA and Asia Pacific at Harvard Business Publishing Education, and Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
Tracey detailed the research cooperation between Oxford scientists and the global biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, according to organisers.
Putting European universities at the top
On Wednesday, the 2023 Europe Universities Summit featured a rectors’ roundtable, chaired by the University of Warsaw’s Nowak.
The heads of national and international universities discussed ways to deepen collaboration to help propel Europe to a leading role in the “global higher education context,” according to officials.
There was also “a roundtable of vice-presidents for research,” focused on ways for universities to work together in research, development and innovation.
‘A historic event’
In a speech concluding the 2023 Europe Universities Summit, Zygmunt Lalak, Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Warsaw, hailed the conference as a “historic event,” the first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe.
Lalak added: “I hope it is going to have a long-lasting impact on the ways in which we shall think about higher education. It has been an amazing experience to hear all these voices at roundtable discussions and lectures.”
(pm/gs)
Source: University of Warsaw, Times Higher Education
