UNIC Day 2025: students imagine the inclusive university of 2040
How can universities and cities become more inclusive, interconnected and forward-looking? This was the question that guided UNIC Day, organised at the University of Liège on 28 November. During an afternoon of two creative workshops, students from different European universities shared their experiences and reflected on campus life and the place of the university in the city.
O
rganised as part of International Week, UNIC Day brought together UNIC representatives, REPIC Master's students and students from Liège to imagine the future of a more inclusive university. UNIC Day 2025 provided students with a space to meet, exchange ideas and reflect on the challenges of inclusion, diversity and urban transformation. Supervised by Elsa Mescoli , Bastin Bomans (ULiège), Maarten Nijpels (representative of the City of Rotterdam), Marine Boscardin and Caroline Rondelle (Maison de l'Urbanité) participants were invited to imagine the year 2040 and think about a more open, inclusive and integrated university.
Two creative workshops
The first workshop, Postcards from the Future, offered a projection exercise: imagining the university of 2040 as a fully inclusive place connected to its city. Students wrote postcards ‘sent from the future,’ describing what had changed in campus life, what made the university more welcoming to all, and the transformations that had enabled this evolution. Some of the postcards were then read aloud, serving as a starting point for a group discussion on current obstacles and concrete avenues for change, both in terms of student services and links with the city.
The second workshop, Dream Collage, was aimed specifically at REPIC Master's students, who work on urban and regional issues. Using images, keywords and a variety of visual materials, they created collages representing the possible evolution of the ULiège urban campus by 2040: new spaces open to the city, places for social interaction and diversity, and redesigned functions to better integrate student life, academic activities and urban dynamics. These collages explored ambitious visions of a more accessible, sustainable campus that is more deeply rooted in the daily life of the city.
Beyond the workshops, UNIC Day was a highlight for students from different academic backgrounds to share their experiences.
Gaia, a student at Malmö University, emphasises the importance of these discussions at European level: "As an international student at Malmö University, I appreciate how UNIC provides a space to explore new perspectives on the challenges faced by international students. The exchanges during UNIC Day showed me that many of these difficulties are shared across universities, but I also discovered inspiring approaches developed elsewhere to better support students in similar situations. This gave me valuable insights and the motivation to contribute to improving how our institutions support students who encounter such challenges."
Océane Chavez, a student at the University of Liège, emphasises the richness of exchanges between different audiences: “UNIC Day was very enriching because it was possible to exchange with foreign students, but also with people rooted in the daily life of the city of Liège, on topics such as student housing and student mobility within the city itself. The diversity of the audience really enriched the exchange that UNIC Day facilitates by bringing different points of view to the table, but above all by highlighting areas for improvement that are already in place in other cities."
These testimonials illustrate the purpose of UNIC Day: to generate new ideas, share best practices between cities and universities, and give students the opportunity to contribute directly to the development of their institutions.
About the UNIC alliance
The University of Liège is part of the UNIC alliance – European University of Post-Industrial Cities, which brings together ten European universities located in cities marked by profound industrial transformations. Together, these universities develop joint projects in the fields of teaching, research and civic engagement, with a particular focus on the challenges facing post-industrial cities, inclusion and diversity.
More information about UNIC at ULiège: www.unic.uliege.be
