Opava meeting will bring European universities together on skills, civic engagement and regional transition
A European University Alliance known as STARS EU will gather in Opava, Czechia, from 25 to 27 March 2026 for its annual conference, focusing on “transformative education” as a response to social pressures, rapid digital change and the climate transition. Organisers say the event is designed to align teaching and cooperation across partner institutions, with workshops and strategy sessions aimed at the next phase of joint work.
European universities are again putting their cross-border experiment under the spotlight. STARS EU—short for the Strategic Alliance for Regional Transition—will hold its 2026 annual conference in Opava, hosted by Silesian University in Opava, bringing together academic leaders, researchers, educators and stakeholders for three days of plenaries, workshops and working meetings. According to the alliance’s announcement, the aim is to review progress, sharpen shared priorities and map the next steps in the alliance’s development.
The conference theme—“Transformative Education for Europe’s Future”—signals an ambition that goes beyond routine networking. STARS EU says it wants to explore how teaching and learning can equip students with skills and mindsets linked to Europe’s main transitions: digitalisation, environmental change and social cohesion. In practical terms, the programme is set to combine formal opening sessions with thematic workshops, working group meetings and “strategic discussions” on joint priorities, alongside networking across participating institutions.
At the centre of the agenda is a claim heard increasingly across the EU’s higher-education policy space: that universities should not only train for jobs, but also strengthen democratic resilience and community wellbeing. STARS EU frames transformative education as fostering critical thinking, creativity, empathy and civic engagement—attributes it argues are needed for students to shape Europe’s future in a period of political polarisation, economic uncertainty and fast-moving technology.
The Opava meeting is expected to draw roughly 180 participants, the organisers say, and comes after earlier STARS EU annual conferences in France and Albania. The alliance points to a continuing focus on how higher education and research can support regional development, including through education, research cooperation and knowledge transfer—an approach that aligns with the broader logic behind the EU’s European Universities initiative, which encourages institutions to collaborate across borders on curricula, mobility and innovation.
That wider EU framework matters because alliances such as STARS EU are often presented as testbeds for a more integrated European Higher Education Area. In recent years, the European Commission has repeatedly described European University Alliances as a way to make cooperation “structural” rather than project-based, with dedicated Erasmus+ support and a policy push to remove barriers to joint programmes. For readers following this debate, The European Times has previously reported on the EU’s strategy for universities and the drive to deepen cross-border cooperation.
For STARS EU, the immediate question in Opava will be whether “transformative education” can be translated from aspiration into operational change: shared teaching formats, clearer pathways for mobility, and governance that allows partner institutions to move at the same pace. The organisers say further details—including agenda information and registration updates—are available through the conference registration site.
Event details: STARS EU Annual Conference 2026, 25–27 March 2026, Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic). Registration information is listed at starseu2026.slu.cz.
