Una Europa Student Project Incubator: Breaking Barriers for Student Engagement

Badge awarded to

Sabrina Schweizer

Issued on 09 Jul 2026 by

Una Europa

The Una Europa Student Project Incubator: ‘Breaking Barriers for Student Engagement’ was an 11-week online programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students from the eleven Una Europa universities. It provided participants with experience in using the design thinking process to develop initiatives and solutions addressing barriers to student engagement. During the programme participants developed their abilities to identify real life challenges, explored them deeply by engaging with those affected, defined problem statements, ideated and developed prototypes to address the challenges, and tested them with real users. Finally, the participants also practiced presenting their solutions in short 1-pagers and online pitches. The programme focused on developing participant agency by supporting the development of transferable skills that can be applied anywhere in the future. The participants worked in international and interdisciplinary teams and developed their prototypes based on one of the following five topics: 1) University structures for engagement, 2) Communication for engagement, 3) Accessible, diverse, and inclusive engagement, 4) Student well-being in engagement, and 5) Recognition and benefits of student engagement. During the programme, participants joined online workshops based on the design thinking process, engaged in collaborative teamwork, and submitted regular milestones that supported their progress towards their prototypes. The Una Europa Student Project Incubator: 'Breaking Barriers for Student Engagement' was coordinated by the University of Helsinki.

Achievement Type	Badge
Field of Study	Design Thinking for Social Challenges

Issuer

Una Europa

communications@una-europa.eu

Una Europa is an alliance of 11 leading research-intensive universities from all corners of Europe. Together, we are forging a new path for education and research in Europe and beyond to shape our shared future for the better. The Una Europa community spans more than half a million students, 100,000 members of staff and 10 languages, grounded in over 1,000 years of collective heritage.

Una Europa partner universities:

Founded in 2019, Una Europa has secured successive rounds of European Union funding to realise our vision for a European ‘University of the Future’. In just three years, the alliance’s pilot project succeeded in launching nine joint programmes – including Europe’s first truly joint bachelor’s degree – transcending boundaries of discipline, institution, and country to take international collaboration to the next level. The alliance has also taken its first steps towards a common research ecosystem underpinned by a shared research and innovation agenda.

Guided by its 2030 Strategy, Una Europa is working towards a truly inter-university and pan-European campus, shaped by universities’ universal and fundamentally interwoven obligations to society: research and innovation, teaching and learning, and societal outreach.

Visit una-europa.euuna-europa.eu to learn more.

Criteria

Participants who completed the programme and obtained this badge will be able to: 1) Understand the systemic dynamics and underlying structures that influence the challenges students are facing within universities, 2) Explore challenges by engaging directly with real stakeholders and gathering deeper insights, 3) Develop prototypes addressing the underlying structures of societal challenges, 4) Reflect on their own role within their (university) community and take steps towards making a positive change in that setting, 5) Work in intercultural and virtual teams of students from across the Una Europa alliance on developing a solution for a real life challenge based on design thinking principles, and 6) Transfer their skills and knowledge from this programme to future challenges they wish to work on.