UNITA Universitas Montium is an alliance of twelve higher education institutions, and a legal entity (UNITA GEIE), from seven countries with different sizes and trajectories gathering together nearly 250,000 students and 22,000 staff members.
Origins and growth of UNITA
UNITA – Universitas Montium was created in 2020 as a response to the “European Universities” initiative of the Erasmus+ programme. These partnerships are long-term cooperation projects between higher education institutions that aim to improve the quality of higher education and the competitiveness of European universities.
10 members and 2 associates
Universidade da Beira Interior · UBI
PORTUGAL
Instituto Politécnico da Guarda · IPG
PORTUGAL
Universidad Pública de Navarra · UPNA
SPAIN
Universidad de Zaragoza · UNIZAR
SPAIN
Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour · UPPA
FRANCE
Université Savoie Mont Blanc · USMB
FRANCE
Università di Torino · UNITO
ITALY
Università degli Studi di Brescia · UNIBS
ITALY
Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara · UVT
ROMANIA
Universitatea Transilvania din Brașov · UNITBV
ROMANIA
Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale · HES-SO
SWITZERLAND
Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University · CHNU
UKRAINE
A shared geographical and cultural context
The UNITA Universities are located in rural, mountain, and cross-border regions across Southern, Western and Central-Eastern Europe, in ecosystems sharing similar challenges and impacted by core-periphery dynamics.
Mission and key objectives
The Alliance aims to achieve innovation in education; promote research and innovation in the six priority areas (green energy, cultural heritage, circular economy, inclusive societies, digital transition and global health); create an international virtual campus; and promote European citizenship and multilingualism through intercomprehension between Romance languages.
The meaning behind UNITA
The words ‘unidad, unidade, unità, unitate, unité’ inspire our name: UNITA. It evokes the strong links and commonalities that bring us together to create a ground-breaking and innovative alliance aiming at a deeper level of integration. Universitas Montium, written in Latin, stresses a common heritage and the fact that UNITA universities all speak Romance languages.
Our values
EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
We share a strong commitment to contribute to the development of our societies and territories in a European dimension, including the awareness of a shared European citizenship and the contribution to the permanently ongoing construction of European identity.
PROMOTION OF THE EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES
We are strongly committed to promoting the European democratic values of peace, human dignity and human rights, equality, diversity and inclusion, and to the construction of a fully-fledged European University fostering the European way of life.
We believe in:
- Democratic participation
- Societal and civic engagement
- Diversity
- People empowerment
- Inclusiveness
- Environmental responsibility
USE OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES
We actively and increasingly use Romance languages in addition to English in education, research, innovation and management, thus enhancing linguistic diversity and promoting inclusion but also resorting to them as a tool for projecting UNITA beyond Europe taking advantage of our languages in large regions of the world, particularly in the Americas and in Africa.
A strong network of partners
In addition to the legal entity, UNITA GEIE (UNITA European Economic Interest Grouping), the Alliance includes more than fifty associated partners representing various actors in each regional ecosystem, such as the socio-economic sector, public authorities, a quality assurance agency, policymakers, and civil organizations.
Our slogan ‘Climb your future’ reflects our commitment to supporting the aspirations of our graduates and our communities by fostering their resilience to cope with life’s challenges.
UNITA’s global outlook: The Geminae Program
UNITA – Universitas Montium is also open to the world through the Geminae Program. This initiative consists of a network of “sister” universities, based on the quality of the institutions, located in non-European countries that speak Romance languages.
Building a sustainable university model
Together, we constitute a unique ecosystem that ensure the transformative impact and the sustainability of our new University model.
Work Packages & Task Teams
