European Universities: a Pathway for Technological Universities

• Main Author: Brian O'Neill
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Technological University Dublin 2020-01-01
• Series: Irish Journal of Academic Practice
• Subjects: European universities; experience; other cultures; different languages
• Online Access: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijap/vol8/iss1/10/

In September 2017, in a celebrated speech on the future of Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed the idea that Europe should have at least twenty “European universities” of sufficient scale that would allow students to move between different institutions, experience other cultures and take classes in at least two different languages. Speaking in the Sorbonne to an audience of university presidents, diplomats and parliamentarians as well as students, he argued that culture and knowledge is what binds the European Union together and that European universities could uniquely help to “create a sense of belonging” that will be the “strongest cement for Europe”. Countering the apparent fragmentation of European, Macron’s vision is of revival of the values of multiculturalism and multilingualism wherein every young person should “travel the continent to learn other languages” and “unlearn their natural boorish ways”. This Europe, he claimed, “which has lived through so many wars and conflicts: what holds it together is its culture”