Public University of Navarre (UPNA) has hosted this week the annual meeting of a working group of the UNITA - Universitas Montium alliance, a consortium of European universities to which the Navarre institution belongs as a full member since 2023. Over two days, 80 participants, mostly teaching and technical staff from eleven UNITA member institutions from seven different countries, have been working together on issues related to the impact and dissemination of this alliance. They have addressed key issues for the development and projection of UNITA, such as external and internal communication strategies and financial and environmental sustainability.
The work area on Impact and dissemination, led by UPNA together with University of Beira Interior (UBI), was one of the five ones considered key to achieving the objectives of the second phase of UNITA, which is being developed between 2023-2027 and which aims at consolidating this initiative.
The organisation of these working sessions at UPNA, the first ones held by UNITA this year, has allowed the Navarre university institution to consolidate its new status within the alliance, strengthen its international presence and improve the visibility of its teaching and research activity in Europe.
UNITA – Universitas Montium
The UNITA - Universitas Montium – alliance, created in 2020, is currently made up of twelve universities, ten full partners and two associated institutions, which represents a human collective of 250,000 students and 21,000 people including teaching, technical and administrative staff.
The partner universities are those of Beira Interior and Instituto Politecnico de Guarda (Portugal); Zaragoza and Pamplona (Spain); Turin and Brescia (Italy); Pau and Pays de l'Adour and Savoie Mont Blanc (France); University of the West of Timisoara (Romania) and Transylvania University of Brasov (Romania). The partner institutions are the Higher Specialised School of Western Switzerland - HES-SO (Switzerland) and Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University (Ukraine).
They all share the common feature of being located in mountainous regions, close to the borders of their countries and where Romance languages are spoken.
New practices in education, research and governance
UPNA's membership in the UNITA alliance is strategic for its internationalisation as it allows this Navarre university to work with other European educational institutions in the development of new practices in education, research and institutional governance.
One of the major challenges is the implementation of joint bachelor's and master's degrees and doctoral programmes. Other lines of action include support for mobility, the formation of interdisciplinary research teams, the creation of a system for accessing the research infrastructures of partner institutions, the establishment of an integrated digital campus and the promotion of continuous training programmes.
Within this framework, UPNA is currently working on the upcoming launch of virtual mobility and blended intensive programmes (BIPs), short and intensive teaching and learning programmes that use innovative methods, including online collaboration, and encourage exchange and teamwork.