Charles University recently hosted a unique event called Growing Together, bringing together students, staff, as well as partners and representatives of the 4EU+ Alliance for a special day at the Carolinum. The alliance, comprising eight prestigious research universities including CU, was founded in 2018 and has made significant strides in creating and bridging new opportunities in education, research, and mobility. In line with the European Union’s long-term integration goals, the first-time event provided a focus on present and future developments.
Often, busy schedules make it difficult for members of the community to share their experience. That’s what the day, held in the Hall of Patriots on 5 March, was all about: an opportunity to take stock of the alliance’s progress as well as to focus on further success. Charles University regularly holds special days to highlight research and research opportunities (like Primus Day, also in March, and National ERC Day held in the autumn). But the conference on 5 March called Growing Together was the first of its kind, bringing together local as well as international speakers, and both key players and students who have contributed. The event (which can be viewed online here) was divided into key blocks: Stronger Together: Shaping European Higher Education, Putting 4EU+ into practice, Student voices, experiences & initiatives, Joint Study Programmes in 4EU+, and more. Emceeing was taken care of by 4EU+ officers at CU, Kristýna Kolínová and Tomáš Novotný, in a crisp and deft fashion. If some segments ran a little long, that was only to be expected as there were many crunchy details to discuss and plenty of interest: the Hall of Patriots was full of interested visitors, with more joining online.
Professor Lenka Rovná welcomes participants on 5 March on behalf of Rector Milena Králícková. The rector joined proceedings later.
The very first block was opened by a member of the CU Rector’s Board and 4EU+ Management Committee member Lenka Rovná, followed by former EC Vice-President Věra Jourová – who recently made the transition to academia and is now CU’s vice-rector for Development of Human Resources and New Technologies. 4EU+ Policy Officer & interim Secretary General Elena Del Giorgio also spoke, welcoming attendees.
Professor Rovná discussed the alliance briefly within the context of its beginnings and goals today. It can be easy to forget that it all started as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 – that's right, steel and coal – which she cited as a clever start because it appealed to common pragmatic goals. If there were a restart, today, Professor Rovná suggested, culture would be the common ground or foundation on which to build, citing a quote by Jean Monnet. Her reminder that the EU began primarily through economic cooperation, the idea that economic collaboration would pave the way for political unity and stability, was important: it has helped to inoculate Europe from future wars. It has been an incredible success story since (peace and stability for more than 70 years), although war has returned to Europe, something Vice-Rector Věra Jourová alluded to in her segment. With the geopolitical situation changing rapidly, it is clear more European funds will, in the near future, need to be allotted for European security. The ‘million dollar question’ now is how much a major rebalancing will affect areas such as education, innovation, and research – even though some support there must continue.
Former EC Vice-President Věra Jourová discusses European values and strategic documents in the areas of education and research.
Věra Jourová quoted T. G. Masaryk’s statement on education as "absolutely key" to democratic society and referred directly to the EC’s strategic Competitiveness Compass (itself influenced by a report by former ECB president Mario Draghi).
“When you read the compass, you can find there a very strong article about universities, research and the strong role of alliances of universities. The Compass tells us what we would like to see is the removal of countries’ borders. We need to cooperate together and this also a very important value with the 4EU+ Alliance itself. When I think about the messages for higher education institutions and research institutions, I hear ‘Don’t ask what the EU can do for you, ask yourself what you can do for the EU’. The Compass is just a direction: the question is whether all of us are on board.”
Charles University Rector Milena Králíčková takes part in a roundtable talk with students in the second half of the event.
The 4EU+ Alliance was one of the first to realise the importance of this direction already under CU’s former rector, now continuing under Rector Milena Kralíčková, who also took part in Growing Together in a roundtable discussion with students. Meanwhile, anyone new to the alliance, or unaware of more recent developments, was able to catch up with a video that very nicely outlined how 4EU+ works: its organisation, its framework built around flagship topics, and finally its aims (such as creating a European degree, an innovative concept of higher education that tries to promote closer integration among the member universities of the alliance. Or emphasis on joint-degrees and microcredentials), as well as other joint programmes, cooperation in research, and boosting of mobility for staff and students. All are laid out perfectly (and you can watch the video from 00:08:19 at the bottom of the page or can view it here).
4EU+ Policy Officer & interim Secretary General Elena Del Giorgio (right), flanked by Věra Jourová and Lenka Rovná (left).
Seven years in, the 4EU+ Alliance has gone from its original four – Charles University, Sorbonne University, Heidelberg University, and the University of Warsaw – to eight, adding the University of Milan, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Geneva and Paris-Panthéon-Assas University. It is now full steam ahead. 4EU+ Policy Officer & interim Secretary General Elena Del Giorgio focused on two positive developments which are the alliance having launched its new strategy for from 2025 – 2035, a framework towards further cooperation, and simultaneously having implemented an action plan to ensure that goals or specific targets or milestones would be met (In her words, new initiatives would be prioritised and the necessary resources allotted, adapting to a rapidly changing landscape). Her presentation begins at 00:29:03 of the video.
“As of this moment,” Del Giorgio said, “ours is the only alliance that has already laid out a strategy for the next 10 years. And this is very important. It speaks to the engagement and commitment of our rectors, and underlines the need to think long-term and the time that institutional transformation takes. We are fully aware that building ‘one’ comprehensive European research-intensive university will take time. The next point I would like to make is that our strategy spans across university missions: we are not just focusing on education… we are focusing on education, research, innovation, and global outreach. And we are doing so by strengthening some enabling conditions, committed leadership from our rectors, our vice-rectors, management committee, universities are providing funding and pooling resources for internal initiatives and internal decision making and processes.”
Anyone – students or staff – can also learn more specifics by approaching their schools’ individual 4EU+ offices which have increased in activity as the alliance has grown as some initiatives have gelled and newer ones are added. 4EU+ representatives spoke succinctly about their role and how things have come together in recent years, beginning at 00:51:27 of the video.
PhD student Adam Martínek spoke about some of the things that made his 4EU+ experience exceptional.
Finally, one of the most anticipated items of the morning session of Growing Together was a contribution by PhD student Adam Martínek, a social geographer who made the most of alliance opportunities and recommends that students look up the information and not miss out. You can watch his presentation at 01:18:02. He summed up his experience afterwards for Forum magazine:
“Things are very different at the time when I was looking for opportunities, which was in a way very random. The local office now plays a big role and it has become much easier for students to look for something they might want to take part in. In the beginning, I mostly learned about opportunities through word-of-mouth, or through course catalogues in what is, in a way, a very antiquated student system. Nowadays, the way the local office takes care of newsletters, website content, student content and so on. It is much more standardised and systematic. Word-of-mouth is still important – a professor in your department or someone telling you about the experience they had; at the same time it is very important that students who are not as connected in their department can still easily learn about these opportunities. I think that is what is happening now. There is always room for improvement but the job the local office is doing is wonderful.”
Forum: You said in your presentation that one of the initiatives you took part in changed your life. How so?
“At the time, it did. For me, I didn’t have opportunities to go on an Erasmus+ exchange, something always got in the way during my bachelor’s and then my Master’s, Covid happened, work got in the way, so on. So what was transformative for me was to take a week and stay at a different university with different lectures and students - and that helped. It filled a niche for me where I was able to experience international education.”
Forum: Would you agree that 4EU+ initiatives or opportunities have much stronger contours now?
“Yes. It’s also different from something like Erasmus in a very important sense: I teach a number of Erasmus students now and the general trend is that they choose 'duplicates' of courses they would do at home. My experience with 4EU+ was the opposite: 4EU+ is much more about broadening your horizons, learning new things, and trying courses you otherwise would not be able to take. For example, my geography degree was based largely on migration and global development but I was also interested in urban development. And there were many more such courses abroad. So this was a way for me to do elective courses without having to switch degrees or having to derail my degree while experiencing something new.”
CU 4EU+ communication officers Kristýna Kolínová and Tomáš Novotný guided attendees through Growing Together on 5 March 2025.
Many who attended Growing Together at Charles University described it as a major success. Keep in mind that this article covers only several morning blocks, but there were many more related events, including student feedback and feedback from the rector, over the course of the day. There was plenty of room to network, to discuss more about 4EU+ and new initiatives and abvove all to connect within the growing community.
