Rectors from Baltic University Network meet in Uppsala

 

Uppsala University will during 14-16 October 2009 host about 80 representatives from 65 universities and academic institutions in the Baltic Sea Area. The Rector/Vice Chancellor of Uppsala University, Professor Anders Hallberg, will personally inaugurate the conference. The conference is organized as a bi-annual event within the framework of the Baltic University Programme (BUP), a unit which has its secretariat placed at the Centre for Sustainable Development at Uppsala University.

 

BUP was founded already in 1991. Then, 18 years ago, the Berlin wall was recently torn down and a new Europe emerged from the debris of a disintegrated Soviet Union. The BUP network now has contact with about 220 academic institutions in 14 countries, out of which about 70 have a formal agreement with Uppsala University. These figures show that it is one of the largest university networks in the World.

 

The BUP is devoted to sustainable development of the Baltic Sea Region in its widest sense, and cooperate mainly in undergraduate education. It has to date produced eight packages of course materials including teacher instructions, videos etc. The network also cooperates in various reach out activities and applied research projects, often with Swedish, Finnish or EU funding. The Swedish Ministry for Education and Research and Uppsala University jointly provide a limited basic funding. All other countries also finance through National Centers, teaching hours and by providing authors for the textbook projects. Over the years, more than 100 000 students and thousands of academic teachers have met at courses and conferences. Every year about 10 000 students take part in BUP courses or in other courses where materials produced by BUP are used.

 

The formal part of the conference starts at 09.00 on 15 October in the University Building Aula with welcome words from Uppsala University´s Rector Anders Hallberg. After this, the BUP activities and its future development will be presented and discussed. Main topics for discussion are the following:

 Representatives of Rectors and students will give additional information on experiences gained and of good examples on cooperation within BUP. Other important future priorities such as climate change issues, student cooperation, internationalization, and distance education will be discussed in detail.

 

On 16 October study visits will be organized to six different locations of the two universities in Uppsala: Uppsala Biomedical Centre, The Evolutionary Biology Centre, Ångström Lab, Gamla Torgets Centre, The University Library Carolina, and departments at The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. At the end of the conference a joint declaration on cooperation will be signed by the present Rectors and other representatives.

 

The programme is described in detail at

 

Christine Jakobsson, Program Director for the Baltic University Programme Secretariat at Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development, Uppsala University

 

And

 

Ingrid Karlsson, Project leader

The Baltic University Programme Secretariat at Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development, Uppsala University