The precious legacy” “

“The heritage of European universities” is the title of one of the five projects of the campaign conceived by the then 41 heads of state and of government of the countries of the Council of Europe during their second summit in Strasbourg, in 1997, on “Europe, common legacy and heritage”. The project, conducted from September 1999 to December 2000 and co-funded by the European Commission, was coordinated by two departments of the Council of Europe, the Committee for Higher Education and Research and the Committee for the Cultural Heritage. The universities of Alcalà, Bologna, Cluj-napoce (Romania), Coimbra, Istanbul, Cracow, Louvain, Montpellier III Paul Valéry, Santiago de Compostela, Tartu (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Zagreb are the university institutions involved. A progress report on the project is given in a book with the title “The Heritage of the Universities of Europe”, published by the Council of Europe in recent months. The same theme was also at the centre of the Symposium, held by the CCEE (Council of the European Episcopal Conferences in Rome) from 17 to 20 July, on “University and Church in Europe”. Over 2000 delegates took part in the meeting (including rectors, professors, students, chaplains, bishops, cardinals and university administrators), representing state, private and pontifical universities in 40 countries (cf. SirEurope nos. 53 and 55/2003). Models and styles of work. “The cultural and spiritual heritage of the universities of the continent, in a period characterised by the crisis of memory and the fragmentation of politics and knowledge”, appears “strategic for the architecture of the new Europe” and “may foster social cohesion and stability, in particular through its values such as those of participation, the sense of belonging and equal opportunities”, say the coordinators of the project: Nuria Sanz, university professor, and Sjur Bergan, of the Committee for Higher Education and Research of the Council of Europe. What are the results of the project? “A consciousness of the common cultural heritage is a source of stimulus for the universities, encouraging them to cooperate more closely at the transnational level to adopt a common approach to the problems and challenges they have to tackle”. “What’s needed for the well-being of Europe is not a plethora of new laws but proper grassroots formation in individual responsibility. All this implies a serious commitment to qualified ongoing education”. Convinced of this is Paolo Blasi, member of Eurab (Advisory Committee of the European Commission for Research), according to whom “the university in particular may be considered a laboratory in which the principles of subsidiarity, autonomy and responsibility can be experienced on a day-to-day basis. Bergan adds that “through the times of research and learning, the university testifies that the widespread tendency to pursue immediate results” must be combined “with the acceptance of duties that also include patience in the long term”. And he continues: “The transformation of the local universities into European universities is more advanced than the political union between the nations themselves; that’s why the universities can contribute to the construction of the European identity”. University and cooperation. Another delegate at the meeting, Beatrice Bakhouche, professor of Latin language and literature at Montpellier (France), presented a new programme of interdisciplinary research, “Memory and heritage” which is inspired by the life and teaching of the great Catalan scholar Ramòn Llull and includes exchanges between the ancient French university (founded in 1289) and other universities established more recently on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. At Santiago de Compostela, the so-called ‘Group of Compostela’ was established at the local university in 1993. It’s an association that now includes some eighty universities in over twenty countries of the continent. It participates actively in the debate on higher education in Europe, promotes joint initiatives and cultural exchanges and is involved in projects of cooperation with Latin America”, explains the Vice-Rector of the university Antonio Lopez Diaz, “in demonstration of the fact that no university is an island and that each may play a significant role on the international stage”.