A network of pre-eminent universities

Founded in 1992 – by the Universities of Oxford, Leiden and Bologna – the Europaeum is uniquely placed to tackle the challenges and opportunities around leadership and policy in Europe.

As distinct from other European university alliances, we focus on postgraduate students and on policy, actively promoting critical and innovative thinking across disciplines, cultures, and geographies. Student-facing by design, we equip young people with the experience and skills to work at the interface of academia, research, and policy, enabling them to make a lasting impact in their countries, across Europe, and beyond.

A multidisciplinary model

The Europaeum’s multidisciplinary approach is central to what our Future Leaders and Ideas programmes deliver and to what makes them distinctive. Students consistently value the chance, and the challenge, of working beyond the boundaries of traditional academic study.

Our programmes bring together people who might not otherwise collaborate:

• linguists with lawyers;
• historians with urban planners;
• scientists with philosophers;
• students and academics with practitioners and policymakers.

Through these exchanges, participants share expertise, build trust, and learn to work together. In doing so, they deepen their understanding of Europe’s cultures, politics, and peoples.

Ultimately, the Europaeum offers a distinct but complementary response to the question of how we can help make Europe a better place.

An opportunity

Engaging Europe’s leading universities—and their postgraduate students, researchers, and teachers—in this mission is essential, and increasingly urgent. At a time of misinformation, declining trust in expertise, and rising populism, universities remain vital anchors of reason, evidence, and intellectual integrity. Working together through the Europaeum, they can provide future leaders with the skills, competencies, and values needed to strengthen Europe’s evolving policy landscape.

For member universities and their postgraduate students, the Europaeum offers an exceptional return on investment. Universities can host seminars, workshops and modules—and are encouraged to do so—while the Europaeum manages most of the organisation, keeping the administrative burden for our members very light touch.

Only students from our member universities can apply to take part in our programmes.