A Mobility Arena in progress for EUniWell

Maggie is a Study Abroad Operations Manager at the University of Birmingham and a member of the EUniWell Mobility Arena Steering Group. She also represents one of the working groups within the Mobility Arena with a delivery already before the autumn semester starts.

Maggie, can you tell us a bit of what you are preparing for the EUniWell students in your working group?

“The overall objective of our working group is to create a common EUniWell identity, offering seamless cultural and mobility experiences across our partnership network. This is an extremely exciting idea and a great ambition, which requires careful planning and joined-up thinking from the outset. The Steering Group within the Mobility Arena has been working hard over the last few months to set up the required foundations, including two tasks with fast-approaching deadlines in October 2021."

"As a result, we will have lots to offer to the EUniWell students at the beginning of the academic year 2021/22. Firstly, we will ensure that our students at all seven universities are introduced to EUniWell and the larger EUniWell Campus during our respective welcome weeks. We are planning to promote our alliance and the mobility opportunities it offers through a variety of channels, including welcome speeches, digital flyers, social media platforms, and videos."

"Secondly, within the Service Agenda stream, we are currently developing a joint approach to providing support to students in order to create a safe and enjoyable environment for all EUniWell experiences. We are in the process of mapping existing support services across our universities, including pre-departure services for outbound students. Our aim is to share and learn from our members’ best practices, which will help us create effective well-being networks available to all EUniWell students in the coming year.”

"We hope our Group’s work will contribute to the successful introduction of EUniWell to the wider student and staff community across our alliance. October is just around the corner, but we remain focused and really enjoy working together.”

Opportunities for mobility, both physical and virtual, are a key action for the establishment of the EUniWell European University – from your perspective, how can we make a “EUniWell mobility”, compared to other mobility options, as attractive as possible for our students and staff?

“EUniWell is a great attraction in itself. An alliance of this scale is truly inspirational, bearing in mind the expertise and uniqueness we all bring to our EUniWell Campus. Our strength is in our combined efforts. I am confident that our programs both virtual and in-person involving students and staff from across the seven different cultural and academic contexts will be intellectually stimulating, and above all enjoyable.”

Finally, what have been your impression so far of the EUniWell collaboration, with new colleagues from six other European universities, during the first seven months?

“I enjoy working with the EUniWell colleagues. Our Steering Group catches up on a regular basis, which means that we are starting to know one another much better with each meeting. Overall, it is a great opportunity to work with and learn from experts from such a wide variety of universities. We meet virtually for now, but I can’t wait to meet them all in person.” 

The Mobility Arena is the community for all kinds of mobility issues within EUniWell. It is part of Work Package 6, which is led by Linnaeus University.

If any of your tasks in working groups of other WP´s relates to mobility – please contact Linus Karlsson.