Presentation

The European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition

UNIC, pronounced “unique”, is an alliance of ten universities rooted in ten specific post-industrial urban ecosystems, dedicated to unlocking new models of European learning, working and researching that will shape the university of the future.

Our mission is boosting development of knowledge and co-creation through collaboration, innovation and inclusion, all for societal impact and improvement.

UNIC places inclusion and mobility at the core of a new European University, developing models for teaching and learning in “superdiverse” settings. To this end, UNIC promotes (and supports) what we call Engaged Research, and drives changes in institutional culture and academic governance within the alliance.

The results, from handbooks on integrating mobility into existing university courses to joint masters programmes taught across eight university campuses, equip the next generation of global citizens with the 21st century skills and knowledge to address the challenges of changing urban contexts in Europe and beyond.

The UNIC Identity is defined by our geographical spread, our members’ shared post-industrial history, and the immense diversity within the alliance.

Brief History of UNIC 

UNIC was established as the “European University of Post-Industrial Cities” in 2020, a project under the Erasmus+ European Universities Initiative. It was initially an alliance of eight universities,with the University of Lodz (UniLodz) and Malmö University (MaU) joining in 2022.

UNIC came together because, as universities in cities in post-industrial transition with a combined population of almost 20 million citizens, we were uniquely positioned to study, contribute to and share practices on some of Europe’s most central challenges for the future. Through our systemic collaboration in UNIC we contribute to innovative practices in our cities, focusing on key 21st century challenges such as urban resilience and smart cities, sustainability, environment, health and wellbeing, security and justice, diversity and inclusion, culture and creativity, and entrepreneurship. Our European collaboration provides opportunities for our student population, but also for our researchers and professional staff to become leaders and change agents in these transitions.

UNIC highlights

Three UNIC CityLabs Festivals were organized: Liège in September 2021, Oulu in June 2022, Bilbao in April 2023. CityLabs were UNIC’s physical and virtual meeting points where students, citizens, academia and city stakeholders work together to identify and solve societal challenges faced by post-industrial superdiverse cities. More than 50 “pop-up” CityLabs events, and another 48 “Virtual Meeting Platforms” were organized between 2020 and 2023.

UNIC’s Superdiversity Academy was launched with a webinar on March 3, 2021: since then, it has submitted six co-authored working papers, co-written a “State of the Art Report on the Literature on Superdiversity and Higher Education”, delivered two rounds of peerreviews on diversity and inclusion practices within UNIC universities, co-written the “Superdiverse Classroom Guideline”, and delivered six 3-day Superdiversity Schools dedicated to making universities more inclusive.