Resources

Building partnerships with African and Mediterranean universities outside Europe is an importantstrategic aim of CIVIS and one of its distinct features as a European University alliance (1). By 2022, the end of CIVIS’ “fabric phase”, our alliance seeks to win at least one partner institution in the target regions for each of its established thematic Hubs (2). This implies initiating some first joint pilot projects as well as to prepare and adopt longer-term strategic partnership agreements between CIVIS and partner universities.

The workshop “Sensing Our Environment Together: Citizen Sciences for Climate and Air Quality” (30 September–1 October 2025) brought together academics, associations, and local stakeholders committed to addressing climate and air‑quality challenges through participatory research. Designed as a prototype for future CIVIS Open Labs, the event fostered dialogue between diverse actors, encouraged the exchange of methodologies, and highlighted the value of inclusive, science-based action. By convening experts and communities across different territories, the workshop aimed to enhance transnational collaboration and strengthen the collective capacity to address environmental issues.

This e-book consists of a total of 60 artistic works created by forcibly displaced people over the age of eighteen, who settled in Glasgow, Johannesburg, and Madrid, and from a diverse range of nationalities including Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Palestine, Mali, and Guinea Conakry. The e-book is the final outcome of the CIVIS Open Lab project “Migrant Storytelling on Home and Belonging as Transformative Tools” (2024-2025), developed by an interdisciplinary and international team made up of researchers from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of Glasgow, and the University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with organizations that provide protection and support to forcibly displaced individuals: CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado)  in Madrid, Migrant Voice in the UK, and the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.

Please find here different versions of the official the Co-funded by the EU logos that need to be used in all communication and dissemination materials related to CIVIS activities that benefit from this co-funding.

CIVIS Blended Intensive Programmes 2024-2025: quality, impact, and strategic development. An evidence-based evaluation of learning, mobility, administration, and institutional integration. This report presents a comprehensive evaluation of the CIVIS Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) implemented during the 2024-2025 academic year. Its purpose is to assess the quality, effectiveness, and added value of BIPs from both student and coordinator perspectives, with a particular focus on administrative processes, mobility arrangements, teaching and learning experiences, digital environments, and the integration of CIVIS educational values.

Find here branded CIVIS document and presentation templates

Discussion between academic libraries and the student council : presentation of activities and services libraries offer to foster inclusion and guarantee equity of access to all.

The discussion explored the role of educators in connecting with the external context while contributing to the improvement of museum services, particularly through student involvement and the outcomes of educational activities.

Service Learning was also at the centre of CIVIS Days 2025, with a plenary session titled “Learning Experience in Service Learning at Institutional and National Levels” bringing together leading voices in civic education to explore how Service Learning (SL) can become a catalyst for civic engagement in higher education across Europe and beyond.

The session focused on the sharing of experiences and insights from students leading the Student Council, emphasizing the critical role of student leadership within a University Alliance.

The CIVIS Days 2025, hosted by Sapienza Università di Roma from June 11 to 13, opened with a keynote by Professor Romiță Iucu of the University of Bucharest, who introduced a bold concept poised to reshape the work of the European Universities initiative: transclusivity.

This hybrid panel discussion focused on the pressing topic of polycrisis. Held during the CIVIS Days in Salzburg (2024), this event is linked to the PolyCIVIS network, a collaboration between the CIVIS Alliance members and 4 additional African universities.

Hosted by CIVIS member Université libre de Bruxelles, this cross-alliances forum celebrated the results of Research & Innovation projects within European Universities alliances. The event brought together policy deciders and academic stakeholders, with European Research Executive Agency management staff opening and closing the event.

The RIS4CIVIS final conference spotlighted key outcomes, policy recommendations, the transformational model, as well as R&I strategy for CIVIS.

RIS4CIVIS was a CIVIS Alliance project that supported the research and innovation dimension of the CIVIS Alliance, in line with its shared, integrated, long-term strategy and in synergy with its education objectives. Here is a summary of the project’s results:

During a conference on a blueprint for a European degree on 29 April 2024, in Brussels, which brought together more than 1000 participants – both in person and online -, higher education institutions from all across the EU have called on the European Commission, Member States and the wider higher education sector to take the next steps to make the blueprint for a European degree a reality.

Coordinated by the CIVIS Museum University Forum in the context of the online event Generating Roadmaps for Research in Museums, this document compiles the research abstracts from Ph.D. students involved.

The concept of “new frontiers” could be explored in relation to the polyvalence and new challenges of the academic field. This concept invites us to rethink the structures, processes, and interactions within and beyond higher education institutions.

This report reflects the main results of the Screening, Mapping, Analyzing, Recommending, Transferring and Transforming Higher Education international programmes (SMARTT) Project, together with specific recommendations for the development and implementation of the European Degree Label (EDL) and the Joint European Degree (JED). SMARTT was a CIVIS Alliance project.

This module is part of a broader upskilling initiative aimed at educators who wish to learn how to apply innovative methodologies to their teaching practice.

This module is the result of collaboration between CIVIS Service Learning experts and the alliance's pedagogical innovation area.

The CIVIS Moodle is the alliance's common learning platform. Although some courses are taught on the universities' local platforms, the CIVIS Moodle includes a significant part of CIVIS' educational offering

African-European collaboration across academic missions is a prominent feature of CIVIS. The panel discussion with high-level representatives from our six associate member institutions from Africa sheds light on their visions and priorities in our partnerships. It also explores how to further unlock the potentials of our collaboration both for the universities involved and the wider African-European science partnership. The audience is invited to actively contribute to this discussion.

After around five years of development of the European Universities alliances, the roundtable discussed what experiences had been made so far, what opportunities, but also what challenges had been presented to the participating universities under the respective national and European framework conditions. The aim was to identify topics of relevance to the work of all alliances and to discuss examples of best practice. Finally, the discussants attempted to provide an outlook on the future development of the alliances.

The CIVIS Days 2024 Dissemination session on the European Degree offered a strategic exploration of key insights from the SMARTT project and the European Degree blueprint. Speakers examined how these initiatives could shape the future of European higher education, particularly within the context of CIVIS and other European alliances. Central to the discussion was how the lessons learned from these projects could inform and enhance educational strategies across alliances like CIVIS, intertwining with practical approaches and transnational cooperation.

The flexibility of Blended Intensive Programmes can be used to internationalise the curriculum and develop a global mindset among staff and students. BIPs can widen access to international experiences to a more diverse cohort of students, and they can help to develop mutually beneficial collaboration with international partners.

In this report, we want to explore to what extent it would be possible to propose a modular educational offer that would reconcile civic engagement with the acquisition of competencies that allow learners to adapt to a (personal, social, occupational) changing context. In order to do so, it is necessary to take into account both the pedagogical particularities of the micro-credentials and the very vision and structure of CIVIS.

CIVIS, Europe’s Civic University Alliance, brings together 11 research universities to advance a strong challenge‑based educational model that equips students to address real societal and environmental issues. By combining civic engagement, inter‑ and transdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships with local stakeholders through Open Labs, CIVIS ensures that learning is grounded in authentic, complex challenges linked to the SDGs. This digital guidebook is based on our best practices.

Digitalisation has reshaped education, not only through hybrid formats and learning platforms but also by mirroring broader cultural shifts in how young people communicate, access information and create content. These changes raise new questions about teaching roles, assessment and the purpose of the classroom, while highlighting risks such as unreliable information and loss of attention. The CIVIS alliance offers a collaborative framework to address these challenges through four pillars: understanding digital and hybrid teaching, using instructional design for coherent online courses, co‑creating programmes across universities, and applying CIVIS Moodle supported by dedicated guidance.

The CIVIS Expert Group Service-Learning has created and made available the CIVIS Service-Learning Guide for Lecturers at all CIVIS universities and associate member Universities in Africa in 2024. The guide aims to offer lecturers at all CIVIS universities a tool for better combining academic knowledge with civic engagement in their educational activities, by applying the pedagogical approach of service-learning.