The SEA-EU Alliance has participated this week in the Meeting of Directors General for Higher Education held in Nicosia, Cyprus, through the participation of Fernando Pérez, SEA-EU General Director. The high-level event, organised under the Cyprus Presidency on 20–21 May 2026, brought together representatives from the European Union Member States, the European Commission, quality assurance agencies, and European Universities alliances to discuss the future of higher education in Europe, including European Universities alliances, internationalisation, artificial intelligence and skills development.
SEA-EU represented in the FOREU4ALL session on European Universities alliances
As Vice-President of FOREU4ALL, Fernando Pérez took part in the session titled “European Universities Alliances: Beating Heart of Europe’s Future”, representing both SEA-EU and FOREU4ALL in discussions focused on the transformative role of European Universities alliances within the European Higher Education Area. The FOREU4ALL delegation was completed by Michal Karpisek and Naveed Syed, reinforcing the collective visibility and strategic role of European university alliances in shaping the future of higher education in Europe.
SEA-EU’s participation in this forum reflects the growing relevance of the alliance within the European Universities Initiative. Since its creation in 2019, SEA-EU has become one of the pioneering and most consolidated alliances of the initiative, bringing together nine coastal universities committed to building a common European Coastal Campus through education, research, mobility and societal engagement.
SEA-EU strengthens its long-term European strategy
The alliance is currently entering the final phase of its ongoing Erasmus+ project while awaiting the results of the next European funding call, which will be key to continuing the long-term development and consolidation of SEA-EU as a strategic European alliance. One of the alliance’s most significant recent milestones has been the creation of the SEA-EU Association, a legal structure designed to ensure the sustainability and continuity of the alliance beyond specific European funding periods. This new structure reinforces SEA-EU’s long-term vision and its ambition to deepen institutional integration among partner universities.
At the same time, SEA-EU continues advancing innovative joint programmes such as the European joint Bachelor SeaBluE and the joint master programmes MIPMAL and STORM. These programmes represent a new model of European higher education based on mobility, interdisciplinary collaboration and truly integrated international learning experiences.
European university alliances at the centre of higher education transformation
The participation of SEA-EU and FOREU4ALL in the Meeting of Directors General for Higher Education highlights the increasing importance of European university alliances within current European discussions on innovation, competitiveness, international cooperation and the future of higher education in Europe.
