UNITA Universitas Montium - six universities, five countries, one alliance

The UNITA alliance is developing a new rural mobility program, which has a double objective: to promote mobility and to develop rural and mountain territories, which are characteristic of the partner universities.

From tourism to communication, from social and cultural development to urban planning and food safety, the internships and immersive stays are diversified and are aimed at students from many different backgrounds. Rural mobilities are also proposed by very different organizations: associations, companies, research hubs, cultural centers, public administrations...

Costs related to transport, accommodation and meals are usually covered by the host organisation, or supported financially.

Consult the call for applications in the Student Space.

For any questions, please contact: mobilite-unita@univ-smb.fr

Hackathon: promote cycling as a means of daily transportation

Consult the rules of the contest

March 9 (12:00 - 12:30): "Hemp in Green Economy, the thousand uses of Cannabis and... no waste" by Giancarlo Cravotto Title (Università di Torino)

To register, contact unita.office@univ-smb.fr

Are you a student at the USMB and would you like to get involved in a project with an international and European dimension?

The UNITA team is looking for volunteers to actively participate in student projects and become ambassadors for the alliance!

On the agenda: academic, cultural and sports events, in partnership with the other universities of the alliance, animation of the international life of the USMB campuses, and involvement in an exciting adventure!

We are also looking for motivated students to join the UNITA Student Assembly, and thus engage in the governance of the alliance. This body is made up of three representatives from each partner university, for each study cycle: bachelor, master and doctorate.

Soizic Toucheboeuf (Licence SceM) Anne-Cécile Thebault (Master SoLEM) will represent the USMB this year.

Elena Cisneros (Universidad de Zaragoza) and Edoardo Miserere (Università degli Studi di Torino) were elected to represent the students in the other organs of the UNITA alliance.

The UNITA Student Assembly in Timisoara

For more information, contact: unita.office@univ-smb.fr

UNITA is setting up a suggestion box, which is regularly checked, to collect ideas and opinions from everyone.

Don't hesitate to use it!

Reply to the UNITA suggestion box

Are you still hesitating to study abroad for a semester or a year? With the European university UNITA, discover the hybrid intensive programs, a new format of international mobility half online, half in person!

Blended Intensive Programmes(BIPs) allow you to participate in online educational activities conducted by multicultural teams and to spend a short period of time in the country of the organizing university.

The programs offered touch on various themes such as the environment, the circular economy, languages, literature, cultural heritage, or food. All students can apply for a BIP, regardless of their field and level of study, if they meet the prerequisites for each program.

Funded by Erasmus +, a BIP also allows you to receive ECTS credits for the distance learning part of the program as well as for the period abroad!

The next call for applications will be published in the spring in the Student Space.

Mélissa Alioui, USMB student who participated in a BIP on renewable energies in Turin:

On the academic level, I was able to learn about other types of energy besides solar, thanks to speakers and site visits (...). On a personal level I met students from other universities with whom I stayed in contact.

Why participate in a BIP?

This type of program is an enriching experience in many ways:

• You will develop your knowledge in a theme that interests you
• You will acquire skills and know-how related to working in multicultural teams and to mobility
• You will be able to improve your foreign language skills (English and Romance languages)

I participated in the Intensive Hybrid Program in Portugal concerning identity and European citizenship. I got the information thanks to an email from our director Claire Salmon indicating that this program could be interesting for our academics, I study political science and international relations.

Academically, this academics has been beneficial as I have been able to deepen my knowledge of the European instructions and other points related to this subject. Also, it will be a good asset for me to present on my CV or during an interview.

On a personal level, it allowed me to open up to new people and new cultures since I met students from Portugal but also from Spain, Italy and Romania.

If the opportunity arises, I would be happy to go to a new country with the same format (1 week in a country), but only if the theme corresponds to points studied during my studies.

This program is for me a very good memory and was a great experience. It is a real opportunity to learn more about a subject, in another country, and for almost no cost.

Marine BOUILLET, USMB student

Have a question? Do not hesitate to write to unita.office@univ-smb.fr

Virtual mobility is a device that allows students to attend one or more courses given entirely at a distance from the partner universities of the UNITA alliance:

• theUniversidade da Beira Interior (Portugal)
• theUniversidad de Zaragoza (Spain)
• l'Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France)
• theUniversità degli studi di Torino (Italy)
• theUniversitatea de Vest din Timişoara (Romania)

The courses are given 100% by distance learning, in the local language or in English.

In addition to the inter-cultural framework, virtual mobility can help prepare for a semester or year abroad, strengthen language skills or acquire specific knowledge.

How does virtual mobility fit into your curriculum?

All the courses taken in virtual mobility give rise, after evaluation, to ECTS credits.

For each of the virtual mobility courses, there are 3 modalities:

• Substitution: a virtual mobility course replaces a course in your curriculum at the USMB. In this case, authorization and validation by your academic supervisor are required.
• Optionally , you must inform your academic supervisor that you are taking additional courses as part of the virtual mobilities. However, the ECTS obtained will not be counted; the jury will nevertheless be able to assess their value.
• If you are an international student studying at the USMB: the virtual mobility can either be integrated in your study contract: the request must be validated by your university's pedagogical advisor; or the virtual mobility can be done as an option, without recognition of the associated ECTS.

The call for applications is now closed, the next one will be published in the Student Space.

If you have any questions, please contact: mobilite-unita@univ-smb.fr

UNITA has set up cooperation agreements for all courses of study and between all the universities in the alliance. This increases mobility opportunities for students tenfold!

See the page dedicated to study mobility

By undertaking physical mobility at one of the alliance's universities, you benefit from the innovative Flexibility Window.

Thanks to this system, you are free to choose up to 20% of your courses abroad (6 ECTS per semester) without this being a reason to block your departure.

In this context, your educational adviser makes recommendations to ensure the coherence of your course and to prevent your choices from compromising your further studies.

For any questions, please contact: mobilite-unita@univ-smb.fr

Would you like to visit a UNITA partner for a academics, teaching, or cooperation purposes?

You can apply at any time of the year and have your travelcosts covered.

You must meet the eligibility criteria and follow the procedure specified in the link below. For travel within the UNITA alliance or with a UNITA partner, applications are accepted throughout the year, not just on the dates indicated.

Consult the procedure for staff mobility

For any questions or contact requests from partners, contact unita.office@univ-smb.fr

Intercomprehension between neighbouring languages (IC) is a language acquisition methodology that enables people to quickly learn to understand several foreign languages from the same language family.

In practice, it is about developing cognitive strategies that allow one to build on the linguistic baggage that one already has, by enhancing it naturally and quickly. To this end, CI builds bridges between languages and enables receptive and mutual understanding of neighbouring languages and the ability to interact with speakers of these languages.

Why promote this approach?

UNITA is an alliance that has chosen to bring together five Romance language countries: France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Romania. It is therefore a privileged area for developing the intercomprehension method and facilitating interaction and mobility.

In the context of welcoming foreign students to courses, teachers of all disciplines are made aware of the intercomprehension method, which facilitates access to courses given in French.

For students:

Since the beginning of the 2021 academic year, the USMB has been offering intercomprehension courses, which will be available in the same way as learning a modern foreign language. They can therefore be integrated into your course of study, depending on your background. When you register for your course, find out if you can take these courses.

Other short courses and events taking place throughout the year can allow you to discover and practice this method. They will be published on the social networks and in the Student Space.

For teaching staff :

UNITA offers training for language teachers to become CI trainers.
Short courses are also regularly offered to provide an introduction to or practice in intercomprehension.

Information will be available by email and in the current appeals section.

For administrative staff :

Short training courses are offered to administrative staff in order to get an introduction or to practice intercomprehension.

Information will be available by email and in the current appeals section.

Yannick Vidal, pedagogical engineer at the USMB's APPRENDRE Department, participated in an introductory course on intercomprehension during the SMILE 2022 event:

The principle of intercomprehension appealed to me; I was curious to see what it covered, how it was done. It allowed me to develop exchanges since I was in a group with people who came from other universities, other countries. I think that it is not only professional, it also brings a lot on a personal level.

Contact: intercomprehension@univ-smb.fr

UNITA has launched three thematic hubs to structure research within the alliance:

• Renewable energies - contact at USMB : Benoit STUTZ
• Circular economy - contact at USMB : Grégory CHATEL
• Cultural heritage - contacts at USMB : Stéphanie Beligon

The aim of these hubs is to bring together researchers from the six UNITA partners to develop new programmes on research related to the chosen themes.

Grégory Châtel, teacher-researcher at the UFR Sciences et Montagne (SceM), member of the circular economy hub, supervisor of two UNITA co-supervised theses:

UNITA allows us to see other ways of working and to exchange with colleagues at the international level, who work on similar themes (...) to make links. For me, these are new collaborations at the research level.

The UNITA partners have made available a total of 10 doctoral grants in the three research themes favoured by the alliance.

Further opportunities may become available in the coming years. Information will be available in the current calls section and by email.

Portrait: two UNITA doctoral students

The alliance has a research project, Research for UNITA, to develop new initiatives, particularly in the alliance's priority areas. Its objective is to structure research within the alliance and to allow the pooling of resources and knowledge.

The project launch took place on September 24, 2021, atUniversité de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour .

It is funded by the Horizon 2020 programme - Science with and for Society.

For more information, contact: re-unita@univ-smb.fr

UNITA is leading a new project to strengthen entrepreneurship in the territories of the alliance: Innovation capacity building in UNITA.

It will allow you to :

• Follow the entrepreneurial devices of partner universities
• Do international internships in UNITA's incubators
• Use the digital platform for English courses
• Participate in numerous international events throughout the year: summer school, winter school of entrepreneurship...
• Finding a tutor abroad
• Meet other UNITA student entrepreneurs

For more information, contact: inno-unita@univ-smb.fr

1. Creating a shared governance structure
2. To have an approach focused on innovation and on the needs of students
3. Promoting multilingualism, especially with intercomprehension in Romance languages
4. Structuring the research, particularly for the themes of renewable energy, the circular economy and cultural heritage
5. Creating an interconnected campus
6. Promoting mobility for all
7. Contribute to the reflection on European citizenship
8. Sustaining the UNITA alliance

The UNITA Universitas Montium alliance is based on common values, such as social responsibility, democratic participation, sustainable development, inclusiveness, and the promotion of personal development.

Thus, the six partners wish to create an open, inclusive and innovative European university to develop the notion of European identity and to bring the point of view of the inhabitants of mountain areas.

On this basis, UNITA aims to design a truly European inter-university campus in its own right, promoting the excellence and attractiveness of the alliance. Students and staff will benefit from a multilingual and needs-based environment, allowing for increased mobility and the development of innovative pedagogical approaches such as intercomprehension between Romance languages.

This approach is mainly based on a joint reflection involving students and staff of the partner universities, in order to respond to social challenges and to empower them to fully embrace their European citizenship.

UNITA is strongly rooted in its territories. With 32 associated partners, the alliance is part of a significant territorial network, and works in the development of European regions often considered as peripheral. These include rural areas, which are often faced with depopulation - with the exception of the Savoie Mont Blanc area

UNITA highlights these regions with common characteristics, through joint actions with associated partners, who are strongly involved in this European university project.

Six associate partners have joined UNITA through their links withuniversité Savoie Mont Blanc :

• The International Association for the Promotion of Distance Intercomprehension (Apicad)
• The Association Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF)
• USMB Business Club
• The Savoie Mont Blanc Council (CSMB)
• The Euromontana Association
• The Tenerrdis competitiveness cluster