Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Internet, Technology, Telecomunications

Members of the U4, including Ghent University, University of Gottingen, University of Groningen and Uppsala University, gathered in the German city of Gottingen on Thursday and agreed on expanding the network, deciding that the University of Tartu will be included as the network's fifth full-fledged member, spokespeople for the University of Tartu said. Negotiations regarding the network's agreement and new name are ongoing.

Toomas Asser, rector of the University of Tartu, said that participating in the cooperation platform is very important for the university. "We have ambitious aims with the partners for jointly developing both the universities' main activities as well as management practice. It is also interesting for the University of Tartu to learn from the experiences of the network so far, for example in involving students in management roles and in ensuring general management quality," Asser said.

The University of Tartu's Vice Rector for Development Erik Puura, who coordinated the university's joining of U4, said that the partnership confirms the university's excellence. "I could be said that we are at the top in the world, in any case among the best in Europe, where at least all Eastern and Central European universities are aligned after the University of Tartu. And this is a proud feeling," Puura said.

Founded in 2008, the U4 Network supports finding solutions to societal problems with expert knowledge and resources and initiating innovative processes in education and research. A lot of attention in the universities is paid to supporting initiatives coming from below, the involvement of students in all processes is very important. In addition, the U4 helps find partners for participating in education cooperation of the Erasmus+ program and the research consortia of Horizon 2020.