Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present how six universities and universities of applied sciences from different countries co-operate when creating a common language programme as a part of building up a new European online university. In addition, we discuss how the partner universities experience the cooperation, which are the benefits and concerns and what kind of expectations the partner universities have for the future.

The work is being done within the Ulysseus European University alliance. The language programme is being planned and created as a part of a work-package called Building up Competences for Future. The programme is called +2 Language Programme, and the aim of the common language offerings is to provide the learners in the Ulysseus community a possibility to learn two foreign languages in addition to one’s mother tongue. Alongside the online language courses, there is an option to plan and offer other language related activities to support student and staff mobility depending on the resources available.

Ulysseus European University is funded by the European Commission and created by the following universities and universities of applied sciences: Université Côte-d’Azur (France), Università di Genova (Italy), Universidad de Sevilla (Coordinator, Spain), Technical University of Koŝice (Slovakia), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and Management Center Innsbruck (Austria).

The aim of this paper is to present the language programme created by the partnering universities as well as to explain the process of how the work is being done, and how the cooperation is proceeding. We also want to show what kind of advantages the Ulysseus cooperation brings to the daily practices of the participating universities. In addition to this, we describe how the universities experience the possibilities that the cooperation entails, and what kind of potential concerns they might have.

Keywords:

Online language offerings, European cooperation, International cooperation, European universities.