Jerez’s candidacy for European Capital of Culture 2031 continues to strengthen its international dimension and garner support across the continent. This internationalization strategy received the backing of the Alliance of European Universities of the Seas (SEA-EU), which, comprised of nine European institutions from as many countries distributed throughout Europe, has established itself as a project for academic and scientific exchange and mobility within the European Higher Education Area. The support of the nine rectors of the university institutions belonging to the alliance was given during the Governing Board meeting currently being held at the University of Naples Pathernope.
Thus, SEA-EU ratified its support today for the #Jerez2031 European Capital of Culture candidacy. The proposal was spearheaded by the Rector of the University of Cádiz (UCA), the coordinating institution of SEA-EU, Casimiro Mantell, and presented by the Vice-Rector for Sustainability and Culture at UCA, Gonzalo Sánchez Gardey, accompanied by the Vice-Rector for Internationalization, Marcela Iglesias.
The involvement of European universities in the #Jerez2031 bid process is key to the project’s internationalization, to finding active partners throughout Europe, and to ensuring the participation of key institutions (the universities) in the generation and transmission of knowledge and in promoting the cultural agendas of their respective regions.
SEA-EU is an alliance of nine European coastal universities (Cádiz, Brest, Kiel, Gdansk, Split, Malta, Naples, Algarve, and NORD) dedicated to creating a European Coastal Campus where all students and staff can experience Europe through a rich and varied range of activities and collaborations. This is one of the pioneering university alliances in the European Universities Initiative, which started in 2019 and, after the renewal achieved, is working on ambitious objectives such as the European Degree Label for joint programs, the Legal Statute or the objective of 50% mobility.