ENLIGHT Rectors Endorse ENLIGHT Sustainability Engagement
Bratislava, 3 December 2021: Today the nine ENLIGHT rectors endorsed a joint Sustainability Engagement on the occasion of the ENLIGHT General Meeting. Comenius University Bratislava is a member of the ENLIGHT network of universities.
With this joint Sustainability Engagement the ENLIGHT-members want to make a strong claim to be key contributors of sustainable development and to lead by example with concrete actions in governance, education and research.
„This event makes the network of nine universities significantly more real. In the near future, universities will intensively discuss new ways of integrating and will talk about how far they want to become interlinked," says Comenius University Rector Marek Števček.
Main elements of the ENLIGHT Sustainability Engagement are:
- In line with its mission statement all ENLIGHT institutions want to underline the importance of education to empower learners to tackle major societal transitions and to promote equitable quality of life and sustainability. As future change-agents students need more opportunities to gain specific knowledge, skills and innovation potential to combat climate change. ENLIGHT wants to extend the integration of sustainability education to all study levels and throughout all disciplines and install a ‘culture of sustainability’ throughout our universities.
- While enhancing the opportunities for students to engage in international learning and for staff to cooperate with international peers, ENLIGHT is working on structural ways to harmonize internationalisation with sustainability and to reduce carbon emissions.
- As critical friends the ENLIGHT universities are committed to use the diversity of the alliance as a strength to identify frontrunner approaches and benchmarks through peer review for continuously improving our institutional policies. Our aim is to set new standards for each other as partners in improving our strategies to fight against climate change. Herein, the social dimension is essential to create equitable well-being.
ENLIGHT Sustainability Engagement (PDF dokument)
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ENLIGHT – European university Network to promote equitable quality of Life, sustainability and Global engagement through Higher education Transformation. In addition to Comenius University, ENLIGHT connects the University of Ghent (Belgium), the University of Bordeaux (France), the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), the University of the Basque Country (Spain), the University of Göttingen (Germany), the National University of Ireland in Galway, and the University of Tartu (Estonia). This network represents the geographical, cultural, and linguistic differences of Europe. The project wants to bring value by offering new flexible international study opportunities that can be adapted to individual needs.
Over time, students of ENLIGHT universities will have the opportunity to study at more than one university at a time. PhD students and researchers will have a more flexible way of cooperating between various universities. At present, study programmes and courses are being formulated to link the teachers and students at the nine universities.