Together for the Eucor region
Freiburg, Oct 22, 2019
At the invitation of Martin Horn, Mayor of the city of Freiburg, lawmakers and academic representatives gave a bold signal for the region: They aim to step up their cooperation to strengthen the entire tri-national area on the Upper Rhine
Presidents and Rectors of the Eucor Universities as well as representatives of local authorities in the Eucor region met for the first time at Freiburg City Hall; more meetings are set to follow. Photo: Lotta John/City of Freiburg
For the first time it was not just the five presidents and rectors of the Eucor universities sitting at the table as they have done for years - the gathering now included seven representatives of the regional authorities in which the Eucor institutions are located. Thirty years after the foundation of Eucor as a loose conglomerate of higher education institutions, Freiburg’s mayor, Martin Horn, extended an invitation intended to help strengthen Eucor – The European Campus and to expand this cross-border collaboration to the municipal level. “The European Campus has immense potential and is more relevant than ever before. It promises to be a boon not only for our towns and universities, but for the entire tri-national region.”
In their joint declaration, “Joint knowledge - innovative metropolitan region - strong Europe,” the leaders declared their intention to work together to promote academia, the economy, and the culture of the Upper Rhine and the further development of Eucor – The European Campus. The ten-point declaration set out their fields of action and stressed, among other things, the importance of hospitable accommodation for students and lecturers. With ambitious joint projects in research, teaching and innovation as well as cross-border technology and knowledge transfer, they seek to further strengthen economic cooperation. Professor Hans-Jochen Schiewer, President of Eucor – The European Campus and Rector at the University of Freiburg, underlines: “This is an important step both for the further development and overall design of Eucor – The European Campus as well as for the reinforcement of our region.”
Eucor – The European Campus
Eucor – The European Campus is a regional, cross-border university alliance with an international reach. The five Eucor institutions Basel, Freiburg, Haute-Alsace, Strasbourg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) form a trinational academic region with currently 117,000 students, 15,000 researchers and 13,500 doctoral candidates. The cooperation makes it possible to define common perspectives for teaching, research and innovation, and to offer students free access to the classes taught at other institutions in the alliance. The alliance aims to develop into an attractive research and ideas region with international visibility. Eucor – The European Campus builds upon longstanding cooperation between the universities in the Upper Rhine region. They joined up in the cross-border network under the Eucor name in 1989.
Madeleine Marquardt
Further information
City of Freiburg press release
Video „Eucor – The European Campus in zwei Minuten“
Website Eucor – The European Campus