Learners are at the heart of all European University Alliances, serving as both their driving force and ultimate beneficiaries. ENGAGE.EU goes even one step further by entrusting students with real responsibility for a central action line and making them full partners in the learning endeavor. An exceptional setup allows them to create innovative, international activities from within, reflecting ENGAGE.EU’s mission to cultivate active and engaged learners.

“Student involvement is often limited to certain governance roles in today’s higher education landscape, but ENGAGE.EU decided to give students full ownership for an important set of objectives and trust them with leading the way towards reaching these goals”, emphasizes Oliver Vettori (WU), one of the coordinators of ENGAGE.EU’s Area Learning.

Through their dedicated task to “Facilitate Student Engagement Initiatives”, learners receive the autonomy to design and implement activities that shape the alliance’s identity and impact. It is coordinated by the Board of Learners (BoL), a governance body composed of student representatives from each member university, which integrates learner voices in ENGAGE.EU’s decision-making.

Student-led Initiatives: From Vision to Action

The activities emerging from the student-led task provide accessible and impactful opportunities for learners to meet and get active across Europe:

• Student Conferences present a platform to share knowledge, ideas, and experiences across borders and disciplines to foster collaboration and intellectual exchange. This vision came to life in April 2025, when the first ENGAGE.EU Student Conference brought together 62 students from 9 countries and numerous different backgrounds at UNWE’s campus in Sofia to engage, explore, and debate their ideas.
• Student Competitions challenge participants to apply their knowledge and skills in interdisciplinary, international teams, promoting not only academic excellence but also creativity and collaborative problem-solving. This was exemplified by the first ENGAGE.EU Online Student Competition in late 2024, where learners formed cross-cultural teams to examine the role of AI in shaping the future of society.
• Local Learner Chapters embed the ENGAGE.EU spirit at each member university. These hubs of student activity inspire community, innovation, and agency in tackling the grand societal challenges of our time.

A Model for the Future

“ENGAGE.EU enabled true student empowerment – creating space for collaboration, contribution, and shaping the future of education across Europe”, believes BoL member Maria Karapetrova, who is a Bachelor student in International Economic Relations at UNWE.

By giving learners real leadership and visibility through their own task, the alliance redefines what student participation can look like in higher education. As ENGAGE.EU continues to scale up, its commitment to student empowerment expands with it. Offering even more opportunities for ownership to the BoL will pave the way for a future, where learners are not just participants but designers of their own educational journey.