On Thursday, February 9, 2023, HUHEZI at Mondragon University together with MyDigiCoop project partners namely the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, KVELOCE, Gestionet, and, ACEEU hosted MyDigiCoop Multiplier Event entitled "Social and Cooperative Economy in Higher Education". The event was hosted in AsFabrik, one of the campuses of Mondragon University in Bilbao, Spain. The event served as an international conference that had the main objectives to discuss and further promote cooperativism in the social economy and also to showcase the outputs produced in the MyDigiCoop.
The program for the day included several notable speakers, including the Rector of Mondragon University, Vicente Atxa, who gave a welcome speech. Nagore Ipiña, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Mondragon University, introduced the project and the event's agenda. The Spanish Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, joined the event online and discussed the topic of social and cooperative economy in higher education with a special focus on the case of Spain and Spanish universities in the 21st century.
The program continued with a presentation by Paula Alvarez, the project coordinator of the MyDigiCoop project, on general information about the project and its main outputs namely MyDigiCoop Open Iterative Platform and MyDigiCoop Manual for Teachers. The rest of the afternoon featured different experiences in promoting social and cooperative economies in European universities. Maija Suonpää brought some examples from Haaga-Helia in Finland, Valentin Grecu shared some initiatives at ULBS, Aventia Wilona from ACEEU presented a local social enterprise in Muenster as a case study, and last but not least, Arianne Kareaga from Mondragon University presented an initiative developed in the Basque Country.
Overall, the event was a great success. Not only did it achieve its objectives, but it also provided space and opportunity for discussion and exchange of experiences on the relevance and importance of social economy and cooperative work in higher education. The event was well-attended and featured notable speakers and a range of presentations from various European universities and organizations.
Photo credit: CANVA
