FilmEU+ activities support Tallinn University as a whole
On Monday the 2nd of October, the rectors of eight universities signed the mission document of the expanded university alliance ‘FilmEU’ and on the 3rd of October 2023 many attended the FilmEU 2023 final summit which summarised the activities of the current FilmEU project and set out the plans for FilmEU+ project/programme which aims to ultimately create a European University by 2027.
Tõnu Viik, rector of Tallinn University said that FilmEU's activities so far have been inspiring, "Although Tallinn University joined FilmEU in early 2022, when the alliance had already been in operation for a year, we have participated in a number of activities that support our internationalisation in research, teaching and knowledge transfer."
FilmEU and FilmEU+’ ‘cosmos’ have a number of related accompanying and supporting projects and activities. These include a FilmEU toolkit to support and explain cooperation between universities, a FilmEU quality label for curricula through Etiketa, a FilmEU RIT project to support innovation and knowledge transfer, and C-Accelerate to collaboratively develop entrepreneurship in the creative industries. The WIRE project supports research and innovation and will start in January 2024. A joint master's programme KinoEyes in Filmmaking is already operational and the joint Re_Play programme for making digital games is expected to follow.
At the end of October 2023, FilmEU will end its current period of operation and from November 1st 2023 it will start FilmEU+ which has been funded until October 2027 (and possibly for another two years after that) increasing its membership from four to eight members. The aim of FilmEU+ is to develop common curricula, a research and innovation agenda, services in both research and student exchange and ultimately a European University which will be able to confer degrees jointly with FilmEU alliance universities.
Rector Tõnu Viik suggests that there is a lot of interest and support at the EU level for the creation of a strong European university through joint collaboration with universities across Europe, doing things together that would be impossible to do alone. "For us, it is important not just to be present at joint pan-European initiatives affecting higher education, but to actively participate in their shaping. It can be said that FilmEU and its successor FilmEU+ are an ‘engine’ to better link university and societal interests and to empower joint university activities. We can learn from and build on the best practices of others and export the knowledge we are best at. Tõnu Viik further explained ‘it is important for all universities in the FilmEU alliance that FilmEU and FilmEU+ is not just a network of creative disciplines, but supports the university as a whole. "In the period starting in November 2023, one of the areas of focus will be activities with a university-wide impact.".
Manuel José Damásio, Professor at the University of Lusofona and leader of FilmEU states ‘The most important thing is to create a cohesive and strong community that works together in spite of all the changes that are sweeping through universities and the significant challenges they are facing’.
The FilmEU Final Summit 2023 was originally dedicated to the topic of fake news and trust, but with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the focus of the conference shifted to issues related to the applicability and ethics of AI.
The conference opened with the opening of the creative exhibition "Peripheral Perspectives". The exhibition included works by Aleksandra Ianchenko, a junior lecturer in Humanities at Tallinn University, Carlos E. Lesmes, a junior lecturer at the Baltic Institute of Film, Media and Arts at Tallinn University, and Tõnis Jürgens, a PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Dirk Hoyer, Associate Professor of Audiovisual Arts at Tallinn University, Lennart Mathias Männik, student, and Aleksandra Ianchenko, Junior Lecturer in Humanities, participated in the conference discussion panels.
FilmEU is a European university Alliance and association that aims to promote and develop excellence in education, innovation and research in the multidisciplinary field of film and media arts and strengthen Europe's role as a world-leading centre for culture and creative industries. The Alliance is a network of universities, and includes Lusófona University (Portugal), LUCA School of Arts (Belgium), The Dún Laoghaire Institute of Arts, Design and Technology (IADT, Ireland) and Tallinn University. The FilmEU+ project will expand the FilmEU Alliance from the existing four partners to now include: VSMU Academy of Performing Arts (Slovakia), LMTA or Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (Lithuania), VIA University College (Denmark) and NAFTA or the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts (Bulgaria).