6 May 2024
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) was one of the founding members of the European University Alliance FORTHEM back in 2019. The EU-sponsored project is now in its second funding phase. And Mainz University is continuing its strong commitment to the alliance, a network that is attractive far beyond the participating universities. JGU's President Professor Georg Krausch, FORTHEM initiator Professor Stephan Jolie, Vice President for Learning and Teaching at JGU, and Professor Eckhard Thines, a member of the FORTHEM Coordination Committee, came together to assess the alliance's achievements to date for our JGU Magazine.

How did you experience the launch of FORTHEM in 2019?
Jolie: The idea of European Universities was born even two years before. It was the French President Emmanuel Macron who had proposed the establishment of a European University network in his inspired speech at Sorbonne University in Paris in September 2017. He envisioned the implementation of a coordinated European educational policy network, which would help spread the European idea to the people, particularly in face of rising nationalism across the European continent. We clearly identified with this vision and started to reflect about our opportunities to join in here. When the European University Initiative's call for entries was announced in 2018, we were ready to submit our application for FORTHEM. And we were successful from the very beginning. Ever since its official inauguration in 2019, the FORTHEM Alliance has endeavored to make Europe, the European idea, and our European partners part of everyday life and actions at our university.
How would you describe FORTHEM today?
Thines: Our FORTHEM Alliance has evolved into a dynamic network and partnership on various levels, and it is continuing to grow and develop. This determines the value of FORTHEM: There are not just joint research projects or degree courses, but the alliance offers plenty of opportunities for students, PhD students, postdocs, teaching and administrative staff to participate. It's an all-embracing exchange for all members of the university. One of FORTHEM's top priorities is the creation of a truly European campus, another one focuses on strengthening everyone's skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In my view, the alliance is very successful in this respect, and we'll see various positive effects in the future. The structures we are building now together with our partners will remain in place, which is a perfect example of sustainable university development.
Does FORTHEM represent a new dimension of the internationalization of JGU?
Krausch: Our university's leading role in the FORTHEM application process for European funding and during the first funding phase has definitely created a new spirit of international cooperation at JGU. However, JGU has been a strong international university before, driven by the Erasmus concept and programs of the European Union. Thus, when we started to envision and design FORTHEM, we naturally invited our closest European partner university, the University of Burgundy in Dijon, to join in for consultations and exchange. The University of Opole in Poland joined next – in the good tradition of the Weimar Triangle, the alliance of France, Germany and Poland formed in 1991 as a significant cornerstone of European cooperation. More partners from all over Europe followed. At present, the FORTHEM Alliance consists of nine universities and fosters study and research across national borders.

What are you personally looking forward to most in FORTHEM's fifth year?
Jolie: In June 2024, the first cohort of students of the European Joint Master's Degree program on Transnational German Studies will be defending their theses in Palermo. I am eagerly waiting for this to happen. This unique degree program, in which participants attend another European university every semester, has an incredible spirit and esprit. The first cohort involved 24 students from eight countries, and I'm already looking forward to meeting the next group of Master's students. In my opinion, the most important in projects of this kind is to learn about other people, other countries, other universities – and, at the same time, also about your home university and yourself.
Thines: My special highlight this spring will be the FORTHEM Presidency Meeting in Valencia. I'm always looking forward to these events, because we have grown together into a FORTHEM Family over the years. These face-to-face meetings are enormously relevant to the further development of FORTHEM. Of course, we hold a lot of digital meetings for information and exchange, but getting together in person has another quality than talking in a video conference. And I am eagerly counting the days until the start of my two-week teaching assignment in Dijon. I will give a condensed and thus intensive biotechnology lecture series there, but the students appreciate this offer and show this in their feedback.
The FORTHEM Alliance was established as one of 17 European Universities in 2019, funded by the European Commission. The originally seven universities welcomed two new partners into the alliance for the second funding phase that started in 2022. The FORTHEM Alliance represents almost 230,000 students, some 2,300 PhD students, nearly 16,000 academics, and more than 14,000 administrative staff.
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany)
- Jyväskylän yliopisto (Finland)
- Université de Bourgogne (France)
- Università degli Studi di Palermo (Italy)
- Latvijas Universitāte (Latvia)
- Universitetet i Agder (Norway)
- Uniwersytet Opolski (Poland)
- Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu (Romania)
- Universitat de València (Spain)
How do you experience internationalization at JGU in everyday university life?
Thines: Well, our horizons have broadened, for sure. When I joined the JGU Faculty of Biology about ten years ago, there were very few incoming students. Today we actively embrace internationalization – with the valuable support of projects such as FORTHEM. These contribute to a whole new spirit at JGU. For instance, we chose to communicate in English in our labs, which facilitates the exchange of students and teaching staff at our university and with our FORTHEM partners. Furthermore, it prepares our students for the international job market in that they acquire appropriate language skills.

Let's take a brief look back at the beginnings of the FORTHEM Alliance
Jolie: Mainz University took the initiative, together with the University of Burgundy as a very strong partner. Therefore, the main responsibility lay with us in Mainz and I acted as the alliance's spokesperson. We also assumed the task of EU coordination with Brussels. Of course, JGU was already participating in many different EU funding lines and projects as well as strategic partnerships at the EU level. Despite many years of experience, the implementation of FORTHEM as a network of universities from all over Europe involved extensive negotiation, considerable campaigning, and learning from each other on all sides. We realized that university administrations in other countries might differ in structure and organization. Personally, I was disappointed that we were not able to win a partner university in Southeast Europe for the first phase. The more I am delighted that we now have Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu in Romania in our ranks.
Being open for new ideas and new partners is inscribed in the FORTHEM concept. How do you implement this appeal at JGU?
Krausch: The alliance fosters a wide variety of different forms of transnational collaboration. In doing so, FORTHEM is not an exclusive network, but it is rather looking to recruit additional partners. We forge links with organizations and institutions in Mainz and in the Rhine-Main region. And we promote the opportunities that FORTHEM provides not only for students and teaching staff, but also for the administrative bodies at the participating universities. The schemes they can get involved in range from job sharing to continuing education. We want to give everyone the chance to experience Europe.
Interview: Peter Thomas