UL Heads attend the 300th anniversary of uB

Prof. Indriķis Muižnieks, Rector of the University of Latvia, and prof. Ina Druviete, Vice-Rector for Humanities and Social Sciences, along with other FORTHEM partner university rectors celebrated the 300^th anniversary of the University of Burgundy.

After a few words of thanks expressed by Vincent Thomas, president of uB, and an exchange of gifts, FORTHEM delegations attended the official ceremony of the tercentenary of uB with the representatives of the city, the department, the region and even the State. The FORTHEM Alliance delegations enjoyed the opportunity to explore the uB campus, faculties and institutes, as well as discuss strategic development agenda pertaining to the Alliance and visit cultural and historical sites of the Burgundy region. After the ceremony, the officials and the university community had the chance to taste regional specialties during a lunch on campus. The highlight of the day was the parade in academic gowns held on campus, with the rectors from all FORTHEM universities being guests of honour. The anniversary events coincided with the 5^th anniversary of the initiative to form strong European university alliances put forward by Emmanuel Macron, President of France.

In 2017, University of Burgundy (France), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany), University of Jyväskylä (Finland), University of Opole (Poland), University of Palermo (Italy), University of Latvia (Latvia) and University of Valencia (Spain) established the FORTHEM Alliance, one of the first 17 alliance winners of the European Universities Initiative call for proposals launched by the European Commission. Later, in September 2021 two more universities – the University of Agder (Norway) and the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania) – were admitted to the FORTHEM Alliance.

The aim of the FORTHEM Alliance is to bring together a new generation of creative Europeans able to cooperate across languages, borders and disciplines to address societal challenges and skills shortages faced in Europe. The members of the Alliance have a strong regional anchoring, share a long history of cooperation and a common aim – to implement new innovative forms of collaboration. The goal shared by the universities is to educate open-minded European citizens committed to common democratic values, together solving the obstacles for seamless student and staff mobility and providing students with 21^st century skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, flexibility and good communication skills, as there is a particular emphasis on intercultural dialogue and Europe’s multiculturalism and multilingualism.

Thanks to these achievements and to a well-structured proposal, based on the FORTHEM Alliance’s Transnational Higher Education Strategy, the Alliance has  been awarded funding for another four years in order to achieve its goals.

University of Burgundy grew out of the Dijon Faculty of Law (founded in 1722) and the faculties of Science, Arts and Medicine (established between 1805 and 1809); together, they form the historical basis of the University of Burgundy.

The University of Latvia wishes to express its congratulations to the University of Burgundy on its 300^th anniversary once more!