Lived Multilingualism within EUniWell (LIME)

General Overview

LiME aims to demonstrate and raise awareness of lived multilingualism within the EUniWell community. To do this, the team will collect data on language use and language needs among students and staff members across member universities, contributing the results towards the development of a language policy for the alliance.

Purpose and Significance

The European University for Well-Being is a multilingual alliance: its members use several official languages (English, French, Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian) for teaching and learning, for research, administration, communication and knowledge sharing with wider society. In addition to these official languages, staff and students also bring a multitude of minority and heritage languages into the university sphere.

To date, there is a lack of empirical data on the different languages used for teaching and learning, those used for research (vs those which are the focus of research), and those used among administrators, students and staff. Moreover, a general overview of language needs among students and staff does not exist currently. LiME will fill these gaps by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from the EUniWell universities.

The project involves two major objectives: 

  1. To map language use within EUniWell as well as the language needs of EUniWell members using a survey of students and staff.
  2. To gain a deeper understanding of language use and language needs among students and staff by conducting interviews at the universities of Cologne, INALCO, Konstanz and Murcia.
Photo of pieces of papers scattered across a surface; the word "language" is written in a different language on each piece of paper

Implementation Method and Timeline

LiME is organised into three work packages (WP). 

WP1: EUniWell Language Survey

WP1 (led by the University of Konstanz) will develop a survey to ascertain the language profiles of students and staff from each EUniWell university. Questions will focus on language history and language use in teaching, learning, research, administration and communication.

WP2: EUniWell Language Interviews

WP2 (led by the University of Cologne) will develop an interview protocol and guidelines to facilitate and align the interview sessions, which aim to gain a deeper understanding of language use and language needs. The protocol and guidelines will be translated into French, German and Spanish for implementation at the universities of Cologne, Inalco, Konstanz and Murcia. 

WP3: Dissemination and Communication

WP3 (led by INALCO and the University of Murcia) will disseminate the findings to scientific audiences through an academic journal publication. Within EUniWell, a report presenting a summary of the main findings will be produced and translated into all official EUniWell languages for internal communication.

Timeline

  • July 2025: Project launch.
  • July–Sept. 2025: Development of survey and interview guidelines and translation into EUniWell official languages.
  • Oct. 2025: Survey launch (Milestone 1).
  • Nov. 2025: Training on conducting interviews at the University of Cologne.
  • Dec. 2025: Launch of interviews (Milestone 2).
  • Dec. 2025–Jan. 2026: Analysis of survey data.
  • Feb. 2026: Training in qualitative data analysis using MAXQDA at INALCO.
  • March–April 2026: Analysis of interviews.
  • May–July 2026: Writing-up of findings.  
  • Autumn 2026: EUniWell event to disseminate and communicate the results, consultation with EUniWell Board.
     

Expected Outcomes

  • A new collaborative research network on multilingualism between the universities of Cologne, INALCO, Konstanz and Murcia.
  • Student and staff trained to conduct interviews and analyse collected data.
  • Empirical quantitative and qualitative data sets on lived multilingualism within EUniWell.
  • An international journal publication on language use within EUniWell.
  • A report outlining the main project findings for dissemination/communication within EUniWell.
  • Increased awareness of multilingualism within EUniWell through the wide promotion of the survey and interviews, further supported by an event on Lived Multilingualism. 
  • This project will be the first step towards developing a language policy for EUniWell.

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