@UniBE

Through it's ENLIGHT membership, the University of Bern helps shape the further development of the European higher education landscape and supports the enhancement of its attractiveness. Students should be prepared to face the challenges of tomorrow thanks to the combined expertise of European Universities. This is achieved through the exchange in the ENLIGHT working groups, participation in ENLIGHT teaching activities, the establishment of joint structures with the ENLIGHT partner universities and close cooperation at all levels supported by offers like the Academic Leadership Program. The University of Bern also uses its membership in other networks like The Guild to participate in discussions on the development of the European Higher Education Area.

ENLIGHT enhances Bern's reputation as a center of excellence in research and education. The University of Bern, the city of Bern, and the entire region benefit from the alliance's dynamics and networks. They delevop stronger connections with international partners in research and education and share innovation capacity. ENLIGHT events, such as the Teaching & Learning Conference, provide networking opportunities. The University of Bern promotes student and staff mobility with ENLIGHT partner universities, strengthening Bern's international profile as an education and science hub. 

The University of Bern is creating stable structures to anchor ENLIGHT at the University. ENLIGHT is not seen as a project with start and end date, but as a further development of university structures towards a shared campus that will continue after the end of the project phase (2023-2027). In order to ensure long-term cooperation, ENLIGHT activities and roles will be integrated into the university structures. This will be achieved, among other things, by the University of Bern participating in ENLIGHT agreements, building stable exchange platforms and establishing clear coordination structures through the UniBE ENLIGHT core team.

Members from all areas of the University of Bern are actively involved in ENLIGHT and can develop joint collaborations. Members of the University Executive Board and the Central Administration play active roles in working groups and expert networks in ENLIGHT and contribute to achieving the common ENLIGHT goals. They develop the ENLIGHT offers in line with the principles of sustainability, diversity and inclusion and make it accessible to the target groups at the University of Bern. This includes, for example, the adaptation of the digital infrastructure or the advisory services for challenge-based education as well as the development of joint personnel development offers. Lecturers from the University of Bern develop teaching activities and study programs together with colleagues from ENLIGHT partner universities. Every faculty delegates at least one ENLIGHT ambassador who strengthens the visibility of ENLIGHT at the respective faculty and represents its interests. Students, the primary target group of ENLIGHT, take an active role in the co-designing of ENLIGHT in order to ensure target group-oriented implementation of the activities.

The University of Bern contributes to establishing the joint ENLIGHT campus and strengthening international exchange and mobility. Students at the University of Bern can shape their educational and career paths in a more international and interdisciplinary way due to a wide range of ENLIGHT offers. Thanks to simplified recognition of academic achievements abroad and diversification of mobility formats, mobility becomes more inclusive, more accessible and more attractive for students. The intercultural and international experience strengthens students on their future career path. The European Commission has set a goal for University Alliances that 50% of their students at all levels should gain mobility experience during their studies. To this end, the University of Bern promotes the development of innovative mobility and teaching formats and supports study programs in integrating international teaching experiences into their curricula and reducing barriers to mobility.

The University of Bern uses its membership of ENLIGHT to supplement its innovative and high-quality courses with digital forms of teaching and learning. This increases its attractiveness. Lecturers are supported in creating innovative and interdisciplinary courses (e.g. joint courses, joint modules, joint and double degree programs) for ENLIGHT, in exploring the challenge-based learning approach and in expanding the range of lifelong learning opportunities. In the development of joint teaching formats, long-term integration into university structures is always the aim.

The alliances were conceived as a comprehensive development project in the field of education, but efforts are increasingly being made to include research-related aspects. The University of Bern welcomes this trend and is committed to ensuring that ENLIGHT provides a fruitful framework for research in addition to its diverse teaching activities. In this regard, ENLIGHT and the University of Bern are initially focusing on networking researchers and, in particular, junior staff. Jointly developed calls in the area of teaching offer researchers the opportunity to work together with new partners at a relatively low threshold and then extend their cooperation to research and to, for example, apply for external funding. Researchers can expand their research opportunities by providing access to each other's infrastructure. An ENLIGHT doctoral network strengthens doctoral training at the University of Bern through the exchange of expertise and best practice. Thanks to such measures, young researchers gain access to an international community in which they can find cooperation partners for joint teaching or research projects and to benchmark themselves against international colleagues.