Stockholm university

CIVIS partners with six African universities

President’s blog March 11, 2022

I have spent three days in Marseilles in the company of my CIVIS alliance colleagues, for a conference entitled New Horizons for the European-African Partnership. CIVIS intention has always be to expand the alliance to a number of African partners, as clearly stated already in the original CIVIS application. Under the leadership of the University of Tübingen, an agreement and a letter of intent have been drawn up and six leading African universities have now signed a partnership agreement with CIVIS. Thus, the alliance has now expanded beyond the purely European perspective, and our universities are enriched both by deepening and expanding existing exchanges and by developing new ones.

The partnership involves both educational and research collaborations across two continents in order to meet societal challenges, such as climate and health, together as well as create meeting places for mutual exchange – for equal collaboration in an unequal world, as one African colleague put it. Vice Dean Stefan Helgesson from Stockholm University, who participated in the work of drafting the cooperation agreement, had the honorary task of summarizing the conference. The notion of colonialism is inevitable in this context. But both nuance and diversification are important – Europe and Africa are not two monoliths, but two continents with great diversity and a great variation among countries and cultures.

The signing ceremony was also attended by students, including Wictoria M Wernicka from Stockholm University, who is the secretary of the CIVIS student council. It is important and right that students take an active part in the work within the alliance – their increased international mobility is the very core of our work.

Today we also had a presidents’ meeting where we have decided on the budget and key documents in the new application to the European Commission for CIVIS 2.0. Of course, we have also discussed the war in Ukraine. CIVIS is prepared to contribute in any way possible and there is a strong will to coordinate our efforts and take advantage of the alliance's full breadth to assist our Ukrainian colleagues, both students and researchers.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding
President

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Astrid Söderbergh Widding
Photo: Eva Dalin