From 1 to 3 June 2026, EUNICoast's Education commission (Work Package 2) and Impact and Dissemination commission (Work Package 7) met at Åland University of Applied Sciences in Mariehamn. Eleven of the twelve partner universities took part in person, with around 54 participants including the Åland hosts.
Education (WP2): a microcredentials framework takes shape
The Education commission reviewed its task forces, Implementing the Educational Model and Strategy (T2.2), Building Capacity of University Staff (T2.3) and Creating Flagship Coastal-Sea Educational Activities (T2.5), and worked in detail on Creating Microcredentials: Paths to Our European Seas (T2.6).
The framework took shape around three points: how partners will recognise each other's microcredentials, how to count their value consistently in ECTS, and how to organise them, including turning existing activities such as summer schools and Blended Intensive Programmes into lasting institutional offers. A first pilot has already run at the University of the Balearic Islands, led by Miguel Carranza on insularity, and partners agreed the courses target students and external employers, a route towards continuing education.
Later workshops put two recent guides into practice at each university: the Gen AI Guide (T2.10) and Incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals into Existing Curricula (T2.4), with the training each needs.
"What struck me most from the WP2 face-to-face meetings is that we create a kind of collective intelligence during our workshops that simply does not happen online," said Aleksandra Provost, Local Coordinator at Université Le Havre Normandie.
Impact and Dissemination (WP7): showing what the alliance has achieved
The Impact and Dissemination commission worked across several strands: updating the alliance's Impact Framework (deliverable D7.2) and its impact monitoring, reviewing dissemination and the Joint Dissemination Plan (deliverable D7.1), and taking forward the Community of Practice, the local dissemination workshops, and the EUNICoast international conferences.
"We now have concrete achievements to showcase, a clearer understanding of the messages we want to communicate to different stakeholder groups, and a stronger awareness of what distinguishes EUNICoast from other European University Alliances," said Joanna Niemcewicz, Local Coordinator at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin.
Åland: peace from a conference room
Åland is unlike most places where EUNICoast meets. The islands belong to Finland but speak Swedish, govern themselves through their own parliament, and have been demilitarised and neutralised by international treaty for over a century.
The Speaker of the Åland Parliament, Jörgen Pettersson, welcomed the alliance with a line worth carrying home: "You can make peace without a war. You can make peace from a conference room." Susann Simolin, Director of the Åland Islands Peace Institute and an EUNICoast Associated Partner, showed how the Åland arrangement has informed autonomy negotiations elsewhere: in Aceh, Bougainville, Northern Ireland and Gagauzia, among others.
The themes resonated with commitments our alliance already holds. The Dubrovnik Declaration on reason, dialogue and human dignity was signed by the rectors earlier this year, and Burgas Free University hosts the UNESCO Chair on Culture of Peace and Human Rights.
Photos' credits: Erica Österberg
