EUniHuLi - Exploring new Territories in Academic Development

Instilling “Human Literacy” into our Educational Processes (EUniHuLi): Human Literacy is a concept relating to the ability of adapting well to diverse communication situations. It is about diversity and intercultural competence, but also relates to digital communication situations, which are now more than ever an everyday challenge for most of us. For two years, our team conducted various virtual meetings, organised workshops and invited teachers, students and support staff to question the notion of “Human Literacy”. Through different approaches, we addressed the issues of creativity, ethics and scientific integrity, communication, critical thinking and cross cultural agility.

Project goals and objectives  

Because of our positioning as support structures for professional pedagogical development, we have shared our practices, and exchanged ideas on common questions and issues that arise for teachers and students in teaching-learning arrangements. (Design, support, assessment, inclusive environments, openness, academic success...) An article on the conclusions shared around three key themes is currently being finalised. 

Participating project partners and their roles

Led by the University of Cologne, the initial partners of EUniHuLi are the University of Birmingham, Leiden University, Linnaeus University, Nantes Université and Semmelweis University. 

Each partner organised meetings in turn. The symposium, that we had initially organised face-to-face, was held at a distance. The call for projects proved to be a real accelerator and we now plan to continue on the basis of what we have created! 

Purpose and Significance

The project provided an opportunity for academic developers across EUniWell to come together to talk about the challenges and opportunities that our teams face. One unintended outcome of the  project was that we were able to support one another through the challenges of the pandemic, as our teams took on additional roles and responsibilities in supporting our institutions to adapt to new ways of teaching and assessing. This was a real opportunity to and meet our counterparts in each of the universities and thus get to know our specificities and fields of intervention.

We will certainly collaborate within the EUniWell WP2, in particular on the teacher training component. 

Implementation Method and Timeline 

After identifying what might be of importance in the future in the curricula in terms of “Human Literacy” we scheduled repeated online meetings where we discussed the following  topics: communication in the digital age, critical thinking, ethics in education, cross cultural agility. Following the meetings, we organised an online symposium on these topics and are now putting together a report with our summarised final thoughts, which is to be published. 

Expected Outcomes

In order to continue and strengthen collaborations, we are planning a face-to-face meeting in the spring and will be keen to further contribute to the dynamics of the creation of the European University for Well-Being.

Further information

EUniHuLi Project

Contact:

Sarah King (Birmingham)

Jan Matthes (Cologne)

Roeland Van Der Rijst (Leiden)

Linda Reneland (Linneaus)

Sandrine Gelly-Guichoux (Nantes)

Levente Kiss (Semmelweis)