On the 4th and 5th November 2025, Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) organised and hosted the 1st Forum of the Group of Spanish Universities in European Universities (UEUE).
This meeting marked a significant milestone towards closer and more fruitful collaboration between educational institutions in Spain. To this end, representatives from Spanish universities that are part of international university alliances, as well as members of national, regional and European institutions, have come together. A total of 175 people from practically all Spanish universities participated.
The forum began on Tuesday 4th, held on the Campus of Fuenlabrada of the URJC. There was a welcome meeting for all attendees with the aim of explaining the objectives and methodology of the conference, before the parallel workshops began. This meeting was moderated by César Cáceres, Rector’s Delegate of Rey Juan Carlos University for the EULiST Alliance; Dorothy Kelly, Vice-Rector of Internationalization at the University of Granada (UGR), General Coordinator of the Alliance ARQUS, and President of the Group of Spanish Universities in European Universities (UEUE); and Pablo T. Salvadores, as Director of Internationalization at Rey Juan Carlos University and member of the Management Board of the EULiST Alliance. Then, the members of the UEUE Working Groups had the opportunity to participate in the different parallel sessions dedicated to discussing and presenting the progress of their respective tasks.
On Wednesday 5th, URJC Rector, Abraham Duarte, spoke during the opening of the conference, which was held on the Campus of Móstoles of the URJC. He pointed out, paraphrasing former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, that “the construction of European universities, which began as the dream of a few, became the hope of many and is now a real necessity for all“. He also indicated that, for this to happen, “we need a government that legislates in favour of this initiative and autonomous communities that collaborate in financing the alliances that will transform their territories and serve as examples of excellence. It also requires the collaboration of evaluation and quality agencies that explore, understand and anticipate the future in order to facilitate the implementation of future degrees within these alliances, which will be completely different from what has been done up to now.”
Duarte pointed out that we are facing a paradigm shift “in higher education in Europe, which is why we need meetings such as the one we are holding at Rey Juan Carlos University, which is hosting you and belongs to the EULiST Alliance (European University Linking Society and Technology, an alliance of which we are an active member and which has become a new axis around which our university also revolves. I can tell you that at this university we have been fervent supporters of this initiative by European universities since its inception. In 2018, we made the decision to join this initiative, which we saw would be transformative and also necessary for our institutions.”
Alongside the URJC Rector, the Secretary General of Universities at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Francisco García Pascual; the Director General of Universities of the Community of Madrid, Nicolás Javier Casas Calvo; and the Rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Amaya Mendikoetxea, in her capacity as Delegate for European Affairs of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), participated in the inauguration.
Afterwards, the plenary presentations were initiated with the intervention of Ioana Dewandeler, Policy Officer at the Higher Education Unit and for Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) at the European Commission, who spoke about the status of the European Universities Initiative (EUI) and future prospects.
Then, Meritxell Chaves, participated as Secretary General of the Alliance CHARM-EU (University of Barcelona), and Head of Communications of the Community of Practice for European University Alliances FOREU4ALL, and shared some insights on how European Universities alliances can create value for the wider sector, by deepening cooperation, exchanging practices, and scaling up innovation in higher education.
The plenary sessions were finished with the participation of José Manuel González Canino, Director of Higher Education Unit at the Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education (SEPIE), who contributed with the status of the European Universities Initiative in Spain.
Next, two roundtable discussions were initiated. First, on the topic “Academic impact of the Alliances”, in which participated: Amaya Mendikoetxea, Rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and Delegate for European Affairs of CRUE; Pilar Paneque, Director of the National Agency for Quality Assessment (ANECA); Arantza Mota, Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and EELISA Alliance, and Coordinator of the European Joint Degree Working Group; Mireia Galí, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and ECIU Alliance, and Coordinator of the Microcredentials Working Group; and Ainhoa Serrano, Member of the Board of International Relations at the Spanish National Association of Student Representatives from Public Universities (CREUP). This round table was moderated by José Ignacio Jiménez, University of Jaén (UJA) and NEOLAiA Alliance, and Coordinator of the Attractive Careers Working Group.
The second roundtable was focused on the “Structural challenges for Alliances” and included the participation of Javier Sánchez, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and Una Europa Alliance, and Coordinator of the Financing Working Group; Sergio Salinas, University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) and UNITA Alliance, and Coordinator of the Legal Entity Working Group; Sara Urionabarrenetxea, Director of University Planning and Development of the Basque Government; and Daniel Caro, Liaison Office for Europe at the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Spain. This round table was moderated by Daniel Santos, University of Oviedo (UniOvi) and INGENIUM Alliance, Coordinator of the Universities Coordinating Alliances Working Group.
On the afternoon, the UEUE’s General Assembly took place were the results achieved by the Group and forthcoming activities were discussed.
The event facilitated the exchange of good practices and served to share results, experiences and knowledge among the participating universities and encourage cooperation among all parties involved with the aim of establishing new networks and strengthening existing ones, creating a collaborative environment.
Furthermore, it provided an opportunity to discuss and find joint solutions to the common challenges and needs faced by the UEUE group at national level and to identify and promote initiatives that drive the transformation of higher education and the UEUE group.
