Turkish, European universities forge new alliance

By Erdogan Cagatay Zontur</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – An Istanbul university is joining eight other schools as a founding member in an alliance formed with the aim of promoting “European Union values” in higher education.</p> <p>Istanbul Technical University (ITU) is set to become a founding member of the European Engineering, Learning Innovation and Science Alliance (EELISA), the university announced on Wednesday.</p> <p>In a press release, ITU said members of a university delegation, led by Rector Mehmet Karaca, had met in Madrid with representatives of several European universities on Jan. 29 with a view to “benefiting from their teaching and research potential”.</p> <p>According to the statement, EELISA is aimed at finding solutions to social issues and reinforcing the “values” of the European Union in the field of higher education. </p> <p>It also seeks to adapt university strategies to bring them into line with the goals of sustainable development and encourage the mobility of engineering students and academic and administrative staff.</p> <p>The statement also refers to gender equality, pointing out that women should enjoy the same rights as men in the engineering profession.</p> <p>The meeting was attended by representatives from Madrid Polytechnic University (Spain); Budapest Technology and Economy University (Hungary); Bucharest Polytechnic University (Romania); and Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nurnberg (Germany). </p> <p>Representatives of several prestigious engineering schools — including Chimie ParisTech, Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees ParisTech, ENSTA ParisTech, and Mines ParisTech — were also in attendance.