EPICUR opens the doors to European learning communities for SDU students and lecturers
– and provides easy access to academic development in an international environment.
In 2021, SDU became part of the university alliance EPICUR, and if you are a lecturer or student, there are good reasons to follow the alliance’s many opportunities to forge ties across the European member universities.
SDU wants to strengthen the University’s research and education through increased international contact and collaboration. The EPICUR alliance with nine universities from seven European countries provides one of the opportunities to engage even more in European academic collaboration.
SDU has used the first years in the alliance to create good administrative frameworks. Next, more lecturers and students should benefit from the opportunities in the European community, which is why management power has been added to SDU’s representation in the alliance.
In the future, this will be handled by Pro-Rector Helle Waagepetersen in the alliance’s Management Board, by Dean of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences Hanne Søndergård Birkmose in the Education Committee and by head of department at the Faculty of Science Jakob Møller Jensen in the Research and Transfer Committee.
– It’s because we have now reached a point in our work in the alliance when commitment becomes crucial, says Pro-Rector Helle Waagepetersen.
In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the alliance, it is essential that the universities of EPICUR take advantage of the many opportunities offered by their collaboration. At SDU, this means that the academic communities have a valuable opportunity to develop new, joint courses in collaboration with the other universities in the alliance.
The courses can combine different academic strengths and perspectives and attract students from all over Europe – both because they are academically relevant and because they provide access to an international study environment.
Stronger alliances in a troubled world
In recent years, collaboration in Europe has taken on a whole new level of seriousness. Democratic challenges, geopolitical tensions and the climate crisis require solutions based on common, European values, which is why collaboration among European universities is important, says Helle Waagepetersen.
– And it is of great importance that students experience being part of a strong European collaboration. Internationalisation creates better career opportunities and makes it easier for young academics to work internationally, including in Denmark, she points out.
A distinct international dimension
The EPICUR Alliance provides SDU students with a range of opportunities to add a distinct international dimension to their education with courses in disciplines such as European values, the intelligence of the future, global health and sustainable transformation.
The EPICUR courses range from short physical summer schools to online courses and hybrid courses, and students can put together single courses from our partner universities. In this way, flexibility is part of internationalisation.
– For this reason, the format may also be interesting for the one-year master’s degree programmes which SDU will offer from 2028, and also for the master’s programmes for working professionals. These are master’s programmes on which flexibility plays a role and on which there is no possibility of a longer stay abroad, the Pro-Rector continues.
European collaboration a matter of course
When universities collaborate to develop learning elements, students acquire an international dimension in their learning as part of the course.
One current example is the course Experts in Team Innovation for 5th semester engineering students in Odense. The students work in interdisciplinary groups on development projects, often in collaboration with businesses. A special part of the course is the collaboration with communication students from the Université de Haute-Alsace in France.
Another example is the course Global Perspectives on Justice and Welfare at SDU’s Faculty of Business and Social Sciences. The course examines the rule of law and welfare states from a global and interdisciplinary perspective. It uses a hybrid learning model with online modules and a five-day workshop in Odense. Students from several EPICUR partner universities participate in the course.
– We believe this is a good way to involve more lecturers and students in the alliance – and the goal is that the international dimension will become a natural part of our way of thinking about and developing learning pathways. It is an obvious opportunity to create new perspectives in the learning space.
– And if a student wishes to study a subject that is not an option at SDU, it should be straightforward to check what the universities in our European alliance offer, Helle Waagepetersen adds.
Many teaching collaborations in the alliance stem from research. When lecturers are already working closely together in international research groups, it encourages them to also develop teaching together – and this is how communities about research turn into communities about teaching.
– Recently, we have seen examples of this among the applications for SDU support to develop learning elements in the EPICUR Alliance, which had a deadline of March.
– EPICUR opens the doors to many possibilities – we just have to seize them. I would like to encourage both students and lecturers to explore the possibilities of EPICUR and to take part in the European learning community, Helle Waagepetersen concludes.
If you have any questions about EPICUR, please write to epicur@sdu.dk .