EUTOPIA Week 2022 in Ljubljana: Tiziana Lippiello is the new President

The Rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice Tiziana Lippiello is the new President of EUTOPIA. In December 2022 she will succeed Eva Wiberg, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg, who has guided the alliance thus far. The new President will lead the alliance for the next two years.

The announcement was made on Monday 21 November during the Opening Ceremony of the EUTOPIA Week, which is hosted by the University of Ljubljana and will continue until 25 November. 

“I am deeply honoured and moved by the privilege of presiding over EUTOPIA,” said the Rector. “I am enthusiastic about working with all of you on EUTOPIA More, and I am confident that our project will be successful. We share the same goals and our aim is to put into action our European values. I wish to thank Eva and all the presidents and rectors in EUTOPIA. I hope to deserve your trust.”

The Rector mentioned the values EUTOPIA shares and the challenges the alliance will face over the next few years, highlighting the need to keep young people at the centre of the project. “EUTOPIA is our great European home. It’s a place where we want to give people space to get together to further research, to enrich teaching, to cultivate the talent of the younger generations, and to apply best practice to processes and to the organisation of our universities. For these reasons I believe it is important that we continue to work together to accelerate our communities’ involvement and sense of belonging. We need to start with students, the children of a united Europe, who have always been willing to get to know other cultures and experience living in other countries. EUTOPIA is a project that we will place in their care, one day. This is why it is crucial that they be directly involved as much as possible. I am sure that many of our students are ready to appreciate this project and commit to developing it further. We need to make this possible for them.”

During the inaugural event, the Rectors of EUTOPIA signed the Inclusion Manifesto, which has been translated into all the languages of the ten universities in the alliance. They also signed the EUTOPIA International Partnership Chart with extra-European partners from Australia, South Korea, South Africa and Morocco. 

“In this project of ours, the fundamental values of Europe can flourish: freedom, inclusion, openness, cooperation, and the awareness of the challenges we face together every single day — the environment, equality, digitalisation,” the Rector added. “These values and crucial issues of our time inspire EUTOPIA and our actions. We should be proud to share this experience, and at the same time we should feel a sense of responsibility to make good use of this wonderful opportunity.”

Ca’ Foscari’s delegation is participating in the EUTOPIA Week in Ljubljana, as the EUTOPIA 2050 project draws to a close and the members of the alliance begin to work on the next phase, EUTOPIA More.