Laurea joins the PIONEER European University Alliance, coordinating work packages on development of transformative leadership and teaching

Laurea is a member of the PIONEER Alliance, a network of ten European higher education institutions funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme for the period 2025-2028. The PIONEER Alliance develops joint European teaching, RDI activities, ecosystem cooperation and international student and expert mobility. Through their development work, PIONEER universities address the challenges of sustainable development in the future cities, in line with Goal 11 of UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Alliance's development activities are organised into eight thematic work packages, with Laurea leading two of them: 'Transformative Leadership' and 'Challenge-based Education'.

In the summer of 2024, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, together with other PIONEER universities, was awarded the status of European University as part of the European Union's European Universities initiative (European Commission DG EAC 2024). This initiative, aligned with the European Commission's European University Strategy (European Commission 2022), aims to strengthen strategic international partnerships and intensify cooperation among higher education institutions in Europe. The PIONEER Alliance includes nine higher education institutions (HEIs) from EU countries (Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Portugal) and one partner institution from Switzerland. Gustave Eiffel University in France coordinates the PIONEER Alliance and its development work.

University transformation and transformative leadership

In the coming years, the PIONEER Alliance will carry out significant development work on transformative leadership and the overall transformation of higher education institutions. Currently, these themes are strongly present in the European policy and strategic debate on higher education (Bunescu & Estermann 2021).

– European universities operate in a turbulent world, where their funding framework is constantly tightening and they compete for talented students and skilled staff against universities in other continents. In addition, the skills and other needs of the labour market are constantly changing, requiring a more agile leadership culture, the ability to anticipate the future and stronger knowledge management, says Taru Maamies, lecturer and leader of the work package at Laurea.

The transformative leadership work package, coordinated by Laurea, will start by identifying the strengths, potential challenges and future needs of PIONEER universities in this area. Development work will take place at three levels: within individual universities, between universities, and with regional stakeholders. TH Köln in Germany, a co-coordinator of the work package, brings strong theoretical expertise to transformative leadership.

The goal is to identify concrete areas for improvement and good practices to support the sustainable and long-term transformation of higher education institutions. Management and staff at all levels will be involved in addressing leadership issues. The mapping process will provide information on what development measures are needed for different groups of staff at the HEI level and create a shared understanding of transformative leadership across the PIONEER universities. The analysis will pave way for pilot leadership development projects at all ten PIONEER universities.

Understanding the specificities of the regional knowledge environment of the higher education institutions is also important for transformative leadership, enabling effective responses to the current and future needs of various stakeholders.

European co-development in higher education

The PIONEER Alliance is first and foremost about the strategic and systemic development of higher education in Europe at a time when learning is becoming more ubiquitous, and students' learning paths are increasingly personalised. The PIONEER partners aim to provide a diverse range of educational offerings based on research and competencies to meet the sustainable development needs of future cities in Europe.

–The aim of developing joint curricula between PIONEER universities is to create interdisciplinary degree programmes, specialisation modules and courses that will strengthen the quality of education for sustainable urban development by 2028. This development will incorporate challenges identified in research and ecosystems across Europe.  As a result, the PIONEER universities will produce urban development experts and become globally recognised leaders in higher education in Europe and beyond, says Conrad Lyaruu, leader of the Challenge-Based Education work package at Laurea. Tomas Bata University in the Czech Republic co-leads this work package.

The European Commission's strategic goals will guide the PIONEER Alliance's work towards developing European Degrees (European Commission 2024). The aim of European University Alliances is to promote opportunities for students to cross national and academic borders, both physically or virtually, by increasing the number of joint study opportunities. Modern teaching technologies and their effective use are essential to this effort.

In designing European higher education for urban development, it is important to identify socially important themes that require joint solutions. These themes cannot be identified by higher education institutions alone but must be determined in collaboration with employers and other stakeholders representing regional knowledge ecosystems. Education must always respond to the skills needs of the future, making it essential to hear and take into account the voices of the labour market and students when planning and developing curricula.

Laurea PIONEER team.

Learn more about the PIONEER Alliance

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