EUTOPIA Day 2026: The International Environment as an Opportunity for Learning and Collaboration
Jure Makovec/STA
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Last week, the University of Ljubljana hosted the main event of EUTOPIA 2026 Day at the House of EU. The event, held under the slogan “EUTOPIA in Action,” brought together students, researchers, and faculty members to explore new opportunities within this European university alliance.
The gathering was first addressed by the Rector of the University of Ljubljana, Prof. Dr. Gregor Majdič, and the institutional coordinator, Prof. Dr. Nataša Poklar Ulrih, who said on this year’s EUTOPIA Day: “EUTOPIA is a community where knowledge is co-created and transcends the boundaries of countries, cultures, and individual fields of study. You, the students, are also co-creators in the educational process. Your role is crucial on the path toward transformative changes in the European higher education area. With its long-term vision of establishing the so-called EUTOPIA University and the EUTOPIA Global Institute, the EUTOPIA Alliance strives to create an open, inclusive, and diverse academic space that will connect students, researchers, staff, and external stakeholders in the search for solutions to key societal challenges at the local and global levels.”
The theme of this year’s meeting was transforming international mobility into a concrete career advantage. At the workshop led by Davor Kržišnik from the University of Ljubljana’s Biotechnical Faculty, students learned how to effectively present the skills acquired abroad to future employers.
Collaboration and a Vision for the Future
The afternoon session was dedicated to networking among Erasmus+ students and presenting the numerous opportunities that the EUTOPIA Association offers to students, staff, and early-career researchers, including calls for individual research projects and summer schools. EUTOPIA student career ambassadors played a special role, sharing their experiences at the closing workshop and helping to shape a vision for even closer cooperation among the ten partner universities.
Students are, in fact, a key part of the EUTOPIA Alliance, which promotes short-term exchanges, work and study visits, as well as internships through various activities. At the same time, students can participate in the management of the EUTOPIA Alliance through the Student Council. Nejc Nemček, the University of Ljubljana’s representative on the EUTOPIA Alliance Student Council, summed it up this way: “The EUTOPIA Alliance is not merely an administrative partnership between universities, but a community. A community in which we students have a voice. In which we meet, debate, and co-create. As a humanities student, I’m often asked, ‘So what are you going to do with your degree?’ EUTOPIA gives me the answer: an understanding of cultures, historical contexts, and social dynamics—these are precisely the skills we need in today’s geopolitical environment. They are what give us our humanity.”
About EUTOPIA Alliance
EUTOPIA Alliance brings together ten European universities and six global partners, who are jointly developing a new model of integrated higher education. Through projects such as EUTOPIA MORE (2022–2026), they promote mobility, joint research initiatives, and the integration of sustainable values into study programs.
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