Reflecting on the ENGAGE.EU 2024 Annual Conference at WU Vienna
This year’s annual meeting of the European university alliance ENGAGE.EU took place at WU Vienna from 29 to 31 October. It brought together over 170 participants, including delegations from all nine member universities, as well as student representatives and associated partners who work closely with ENGAGE.EU universities. A special guest was Sabine Sainte-Rose, who will take up the position of Secretary General of ENGAGE.EU on 1 January 2025.
A delegation from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) also took part in the meeting as a new associated partner in the field of higher education. In addition to being welcomed by the host, WU Rector Sausgruber, the guests were also welcomed by Moritz Fleischmann, the new ENGAGE.EU Coordinator. He recently took over the position from Thomas Fetzer.
The meeting itself consisted of a variety of different sessions – on the one hand sessions of the different boards, committees and working groups (Governing Board, Associated Partners, Area Boards, Work Packages, Board of Learners) – on the other hand keynotes, panel discussions, thematic sessions on internationalization, impact and workload, an onboarding session for new ENGAGE.EU colleagues and many informal networking opportunities in the host city of Vienna. In the panel discussion on the circular economy, an important topic for the Alliance, different perspectives were discussed: Tina Wakolbinger (Chair of the WU Senate and WU professor), Alexandra Kick (co-founder of Thinkubator and WU alumna), Bernadette Luger (Head of the Department for Resource Conservation and Sustainability in Construction of the City of Vienna) and Peter Windischhofer (founder of Refurbed and WU alumnus) contributed their expertise. Below you can listen to the opening, including this panel discussion. The conference concluded with a keynote speech by Isabell Klaus, co-founder of Thinkers.ai and WU alumna.
The 2024 Annual Meeting focused on two main topics: The further development of ENGAGE.EU in its transition from a project to an institutionalized alliance and the associated and planned deepening of cooperation in all areas. And this, of course, in line with the individual, but also the overall institutional strategy development, which will continue to accompany and occupy us intensively in the coming months.
The task now is to ensure that the different institutions, with their own cultures, legal frameworks and requirements, grow together to form a strong alliance. We are already looking forward to the next annual meeting in Toulouse in 2025!