National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco)

Founded in 1795, the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) is a public institution of higher education and research in Paris. This university teaches over 110 foreign languages and civilisations to 8,500 students of 120 different nationalities. No other institution or country offers such diversity in foreign languages and related fields of study in a single learning environment. Inalco’s twelve departments teach and research the languages of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas, as well as the relative geography, history, institutions, and political, economic, and social life. Our university employs circa 370 teaching and 200 non-teaching staff.

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU) is considered Ukraine's leading public university. It offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses within its 13 faculties, eight educational institutes, an educational and research centre, a preparatory department, the Centre for Ukrainian Studies, geological and zoological museums, the University History Museum, the Interfaculty Linguistic Museum, the Information and Computing Centre, the Astronomical Observatory, the Publishing and Printing Center, and the Scientific Library. Before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the university had a student body of circa 26,000 students. KNU is also renowned for its rich international exchange programmes with over 220 cooperation agreements, mainly with EU member states, and various programmes that promote active, outgoing mobility of its faculty, staff and students. Today, university cooperation is an important part of the Ukrainian diplomatic effort.

The University of Cologne (UoC) is a research-oriented university and one of the oldest and largest universities in both Germany and indeed in Europe. The university employs over 4,600 academic staff, over 600 professors, and more than 3,600 administrative and technical staff (2022). Currently, there are more than 45,000 students enrolled, across six faculties and more than 330-degree programs are offered. The university is characterized by its diverse body of students and staff and strongly considers diversity as an incubator for excellence and as an opportunity for all members to contribute to research and enrichment of university life.

The University of Florence can trace its origins back to the Studium Generale, which was established in 1321, and it is one of the largest research organisations and higher education institutions in Italy with circa 55,000 students, 1,700 teaching and research staff, 1,400 technical and administrative staff and 1,600 Ph.D. students and research fellows. The University of Florence adheres to the principles of the European Charter and Code for Researchers and, since December 2018, is one of the 16 Italian universities that have received the HRS4R Human Resources Strategy For Researchers Award. The University of Florence is also a member of the EUniWell Alliance since its launch in 2020.

PROMOTE LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY IN EUROPE

In line with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, our project aims to defend linguistic diversity and the valorisation of lesser-used languages, given that they are more vulnerable to certain effects of globalisation. Promoting multilingualism as an essential element of well-being is also part of our mission as members of the European alliance EUniWell (European University for Well-Being).

DEVELOP DIGITAL TRAINING ON A EUROPEAN SCALE

We will integrate the LULaC (Lesser Used Languages Classroom) into the Learning Management System developed as part of EUniWell, which will give access to the digital training made available by the alliance. The Europe-wide distribution will broaden the audience and create new opportunities for lecturers and students. The project also represents new opportunities for partnerships in the fields of digital training, lesser-used languages and multilingualism, allowing each institution to learn from its peers and partners, contributing to the development of higher education in Europe.

OFFER COHERENT TRAINING COURSES ROOTED IN CURRENT EUROPEAN TRENDS

Our decision to focus the project on the languages of countries which are currently candidates to the European Union memberships stems from the desire of each partner university to affirm their commitment to a united Europe, through language teaching. Orienting the choice of languages available around the issue of candidacy to the European Union guarantees the coherence of the training offer developed in the project, thus facilitating the promotion and attractiveness of the training offer that will be developed. As Ukraine and Turkey are main partners of the European Union, and as their languages might possibly become official EU languages, there is a need for professionals speaking Ukrainian and Turkish in many sectors. The current geopolitical context increases the demand for specialists of both regions who are highly competent in these languages. Moreover, Ukrainian and Turkish are spoken by sizable populations of respectively 41 million and 75 million, including important migrant populations within the EU. Learning these languages not only promotes linguistic diversity within the region but will also be an important vector for intercultural understanding and integration.