Back in spring 2021, the Rectors and Presidents of Circle U.’s member universities decided to establish a legal entity under Belgian law. The goals were clear: ensure the long-term, sustainable and strategic development of the alliance and open the possibility to mutualize resources.
The “operational side” of this decision has been the establishment of the Circle U. Office, led by the Secretary General, to support the strategic development of the alliance, beyond the ongoing EU projects. But until now, the office was quite “light” and somewhat artificial. Audrey Sullivan, as Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) officer, is located at King’s. The Secretary General is working between Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels, with some punctual administrative support. And the office had no specific operational budget to fulfil its missions.
But things are changing. Things are changing fast.
Chào mừng! Or welcome, in English…
Since November, the Circle U. Office is hosted by UCLouvain on its Saint-Louis Brussels campus at the very heart of Brussels. The team has expanded with the first-ever intern, Ngoc Nguyen, who will be working as a policy assistant until end February 2024.
In her own words: “I am Ngoc from Vietnam but outside my home country people usually calls me Riley – it’s easier! In August 2022, I relocated to Norway to pursue a master’s degree in Higher Education Studies at the University of Oslo. I am now in my third semester, and I am writing my thesis on how higher education policy reforms impact institutional practices at public research-intensive universities in developing countries,” she says.
Riley became aware of Circle U. at the Circle U. National Conference in Oslo in December 2022. She learned about European University Alliances in her studies, and it was in the newsletter she read about the opportunity to become an intern at Circle U. Office.
An intern but also an “explorer”
The policy assistant’s main tasks include monitoring EU higher education and research policy developments and providing support to Circle U. policy work. That entails participating in various events related to higher education policy organized by EU institutions and stakeholders in Brussels. Another important part of the job is to interact with fellow students, academics, researchers, and administrative staff - and with a wider network of higher education practitioners in Brussels, such as members of other alliances and higher education organizations.
“The Circle U. Office is busy and lively! I typically participate in most meetings with the Circle U. key actors and also spend a substantial amount of my week at events and conferences around Brussels. The rest of my days I spend on writing briefing papers and reports or liaising with relevant stakeholders to support the operations of the Circle U. Office,” says Riley.
Strengthening the office
Before the arrival of Riley, Secretary General Kevin Guillaume and MEL officer Audrey Sullivan were the only persons in the “office” – separated by the Channel, though. The plans and ambitions for the months (and years) to come are different.
“In the pilot phase, I was often referring to an “empty shell” when presenting the Circle U. Office. Not that we were not working (quite the opposite) but the staff members were still hired and located in different universities. We had no budget for the office, and we had to take care of a huge variety aspects, from very “political” or strategic to more operational ones. Already now, with the arrival of Riley, the situation is very different. And, as agreed by the Management Board, we have concrete plans in the coming months, including hiring new colleagues,” says Kevin Guillaume.
The office will be strengthened to support all aspects linked to the strategic developments of the alliance, for example supporting the governance structure, ensuring the liaison with the EU institutions, other alliances and stakeholders, boosting the communication and dissemination of the alliance, monitoring and evaluating the advancement of our cooperation, managing various seed-funding schemes, etc.
To do so, the Circle U. Office has received some EU funds granted in the framework of the “Circle 2030” project. And more importantly, a membership fee will be introduced, ensuring that the office has a structural operational budget to function.
Recruitments
In the coming weeks, various recruitments will be launched, including a communication and dissemination officer and an operations assistant who will be responsible for the daily management of the legal entity and to assist the running of the office. Of course, a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer will continue to play a central role for the alliance as her or his main focus will continue to be on the impacts of the alliance. The plan is that all these officers are hired within the first half of 2024.
The Brussels office is “only” there to support the universities in fulfilling their joint ambition and make sure that basically what we are doing now is in line with what the universities have committed to “yesterday” and is effectively contributing to the realization of our vision and mission in the future.
"Strengthening the Circle U. Office is not an objective per se. The alliance is and should remain a unique cooperation process and transformative dynamic in the hands of 9 universities, their students, academics, researchers and staff. The Brussels office is “only” there to support the universities in fulfilling their joint ambition and make sure that basically what we are doing now is in line with what the universities have committed to “yesterday” and is effectively contributing to the realization of our vision and mission in the future. My goal is certainly not to expand more and more the office. But to make sure that we can bring added value to the long-term development of Circle U. The “neutral” position of the Circle U. Office (I mean not being part of one university), the helicopter view on all development within and outside the alliance, the Brussels location at the heart of the EU, the expertise and experience within the office will definitely serve Circle U. as well as our universities individually," he concludes.