IX. Comment on the headline.

X. What do you think of the new proposals, mentioned in the article?

Pilgrims’ Paths to Understanding

Georgina Power reports on how the new Compostela Group of Universities, based in Spain, is encouraging students to cross frontiers and work a real European identity.

Universities in 17 countries are working together to encourage the spread of a stronger European culture. They hope to promote the social inte­gration of Europe through joint academic research and by sharing information and facilites.

The inaugural meeting of the Compostela Group of Universities last month decided to try to develop the idea of a European personal­ity and create a closer European awareness by offering students and staff the opportunity of working in member countries.

The group takes its inspi­ration from the ancient cultural links created by the various pilgrim routes which lead to the Galician capital of Santiago de Compostela, where St James, brother of St John the Evangelist, is said to be buried.

The Way of St James was one of the first routes to link the nations of Europe in the Middle Ages. It passes through a number of towns whose universities have joined the Compostela Group. The city's own uni­versity, founded in 1495, is one of the oldest in Spain and has 35,000 students today. "The study of different European cultures enables us to bring out common values which will form the basis of a collective identity in the future," says the official report of the first meeting at the University of Santiago.

Аll EU countries apart from Ireland and Luxem­bourg are represented in the group, as well as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland. Spain, with 26, has the highest number of academic institutions, followed by France with 12, Portugal with six and Poland with four. The group hopes to balance the large number of members in the south by recruiting a further 15 universities from Scandi­navia, and eastern and cen­tral Europe.

The group will be financed from each member, as well as funding from private and public bodies. Marc Richelle of Liege University was elected interim president until the first general assem­bly, to be held in the Belgian city next March.

The Compostela group plans to improve communi­cation between members, organise forums and debates on European topics, and encourage the mobility of staff and students.

"We think it is important to help create a greater understanding of Europe's languages and cultures," says Manuel Freire-Garabal Nunez of the University of Santiago de Compostela. "There is little communication bet­ween universities at present, apart from at conferences and exhibitions."

Santiago university will be the administrative centre for the group. Data banks are being created with informa­tion about member universi­ties, while "telecommunica­tion systems between universities" is one of several themes proposed for further joint research.

At student level, the Com­postela Group is working towards recognition of diplo­mas in the different member countries. Apart from mak­ing use of EU-funded exch­ange programmes such as Erasmus and Lingua, the group is interested in the exemption of enrolment fees, family exchanges and free language courses for stu­dents going abroad.

For postgraduates, the group is hoping to launch a European doctorate, recog­nised in all member coun­tries. Students would need to carry out part of their studies outside their country of birth, and they would present a thesis in two European lan­guages. Postgraduates would also be encouraged to spend a short time, a month for example, in several universi­ties in one country. In the area of research, the group plans to set up between ten and 12 scientific work groups in its first two years.

Subjects identified as pos­sible topics for workshops or research include migration, social cohesion, democracy and xenophobia, nationalism in Europe, European law, and regional development in Europe. Mainstream possibilities are archaeology, history and philology.

Georgina Power

/The European, October 21-27, 1994/

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