"EUTOPIA promises to be much more than just an exchange. It's like comparing the experience of getting your feet wet in a pool to a real dive." Sílvia Teixeira, 23, and Bernardo Serôdio, 22, students of Sociology and Political Science, and Environmental Engineering, at NOVA FCSH and NOVA FCT, respectively, are sitting with us on one of the many terraces on the campus at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and the smile on their faces is not deceiving. Full of enthusiasm for being able to participate in this 5th EUTOPIA Week, the alliance of European universities that NOVA University Lisbon joined at the end of last year, they want to make the most of listening and then passing the word on.
"We were attracted above all by the idea that it could be a more long-term experience and that it could create a real European teaching unit. In other exchanges, one person goes and comes back and finishes. Here, it seems to us that it will be something more long-term," they agree, before adding. "They are very different universities, but that is even an added value. It is much more interesting that each one can contribute what makes it unique, because we are creating an entity together."
The 5th EUTOPIA Week continues in Brussels until Friday 1 July, with multiple sessions that also take place online. Check here for the program.
