The ENLIGHT Alliance evaluated the year 2024 and outlined future challenges
On 5 December 2024, the annual meeting of Comenius University representatives in the ENLIGHT alliance of universities took place in the Science Park of Comenius University. They went over the successes and challenges of the previous year, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and innovation in higher education and the need for a greater mobility of academics.
The meeting was opened by Vice-Rector for International Relations Jozef Tancer, who highlighted the progress that the alliance has achieved and the role that Comenius University plays in it, as well as the importance of international partnerships for the development of universities. Staff of the ENLIGHT Office presented the activities that took place in 2024. Four BIPs (Blended Intensive Programmes) took place at CU - the 'Winter School on Fake News' at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty, the ‘AI for Everyone’ course, a course on comprehensive solutions to environmental problems at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics (FMPI), and a course on critical thinking development at the Faculty of Medicine. BIPs - courses that combine online teaching at the ‘home’ university of the student with a one-week stay at an international partner university - are gaining popularity among students, and sixteen of them will take place in the alliance during this academic year. In 2024, CU also received grant funding from ENLIGHT+ for projects such as ‘Where can we find mathematics?’ by Mária Slavíčková from FMPI, or ‘Experience at joint educational gardens of four universities’, presented by Martin Šebesta from the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
Innovation, sustainability, and mobility are priorities
The event also included lectures on innovation in teaching. Daniel Klimovský and Martina Benzoni Baláž from the Faculty of Arts spoke about their course ‘Public Policy in Slovakia’, which won the ENLIGHT Teaching & Learning Award this year. The course is based on the Challenge-Based Education concept presented by Lucia Hlavatá from the Faculty of Education. Milan Remiš and Oliver Vavro from the Erasmus+ Office of the CU Rectorate informed about increasing mobility of students and staff of Comenius University to the alliance universities. As Jozef Tancer pointed out, the upcoming challenge for the alliance will be to increase the number of mobility opportunities. Peter Hanajík from the Faculty of Natural Sciences spoke on green sustainability, presenting examples of good practice across all faculties of the university.
External cooperation
The Regional Academy is a platform of the ENLIGHT alliance to enable external cooperation of universities. Kateryna Yakovenko from the ENLIGHT Office of CU’s Rectorate presented the activities of the office in the past year, emphasizing the role that Comenius University plays in the development of external partnerships in the alliance. Eleven ENLIGHT activities of the Regional Academy took place since January 2024, e.g. a lecture by the Office of the Public Ombudsman at the University of the Third Age or the 'Cities in Motion’ meeting with partners from the municipal authorities of Galway, Ghent and Uppsala. External cooperation will receive a significant boost through a pilot micro-certificate project. CU currently prepares them with the ‘Clown Doctors’ civic association also for partners from Uppsala, Groningen and Göttingen.
Students as an active component of the alliance
Student representatives of CU Adrián Binka and Šimon Gabčo presented the activities of the Student Network in the ENLIGHT alliance. They emphasized the importance of international cooperation, experience sharing, and showed how to become actively involved in the decision-making of the alliance. Future challenges The meeting was concluded by vice-rector Jozef Tancer who expressed his satisfaction with the work of individual teams within the alliance and encouraged further development of cooperation. "The ENLIGHT alliance gives us unique opportunities to improve internationalization, and also to increase the quality of our education and research. In the coming years though, we need to set out on the difficult road of developing long-term sustainability of the alliance," he said.
Daniel Vadas