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Civis – European Civic University Alliance

Civis aims to facilitate collaboration across national borders and increase the mobility of students, teachers and other staff.

By increasing access to quality education and creating more opportunities for all students and staff, we strive to create the conditions for success while reducing inequalities.

Universities within Civis

Civis brings together almost 600,000 students, academics and employees. The following research universities are part of the alliance:

The alliance is supported by the European Commission's "European Universities" initiative within Erasmus+.

The purpose of the alliance

The aim of Civis is to facilitate collaboration across national borders and to increase the mobility of students, teachers and other staff. The alliance's cooperation in education, research and collaboration takes place, among other things, through the five hubs that focus on five global challenges.

These global challenges are:

  1. Climate, environment, energy
  2. Cities and mobility
  3. Health
  4. Society, cultures and heritage
  5. Digital and technological transformations

The hubs are interdisciplinary and within these five areas, joint education is created with courses that are closely linked to excellent research at the various universities. The hubs also promote research collaborations and collaboration with external parties.

Within the alliance, new joint programs and courses are being built for students at the Civis universities. Teachers, researchers and administrative staff will be able to collaborate in education, research, collaboration and support activities. Partnerships with local and regional actors will be opened up to other universities within the alliance. The Civis universities are strengthening collaborations with other universities, especially in the Mediterranean region and in Africa.

Exchange studies via Civis

For Stockholm University students, Civis provides great opportunities to study courses and programs at the alliance's other universities via Erasmus+, through traditional exchange studies or through, for example, so-called blended intensive programs, BIP (which are short courses where part of the course is carried out virtually and part physically on site for a week at a Civis university).

How students apply for an exchange to a Civis university (in Swedish)

Exchange places within Civis can be applied for by all students at Stockholm University, regardless of subject area and department affiliation, at undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. All students who go on exchange studies via Erasmus+ are granted a scholarship upon application, provided that the conditions are met. For questions about the announcement of Civis places and selection, you can contact the Student Department via studentutbyte@su.se

For those of you who work as an international coordinator, study counselor or course administrator, there are procedures for student mobility within Civis:

Administration of students within Civis

Students at Civis universities will be able to benefit from the European Student Card. It provides access to various types of student services at the other universities and facilitates studies abroad.

The European Student Card

International traineeship via Civis

Another possibility is to carry out an traineeship abroad at one of the many partners that the alliance's universities have. Funding for this can be applied for within the framework of Erasmus+. Data collection for an dissertation/thesis is also possible within the framework of Erasmus+ internship.

Traineeship abroad via Erasmus+

Staff Mobility

Funds for teacher mobility (teaching assignments) and staff training (job shadowing and e.g. participation in courses/staff weeks) within Erasmus+ are available for visits to one of the higher education institutions within Civis. Job shadowing at the other higher education institutions within the alliance can be a good first step to developing systematic exchanges with other institutions.

Staff mobility

If you as an employee are part of a formal group within Civis and have questions about travel to participate in various types of meetings – contact Sara Laginder (sara.laginder@su.se) at the Office of the Rector for more information.

Educational initiatives within Civis

All educational initiatives within Civis that are coordinated by SU and where students will receive credits from SU require a course syllabus. This course syllabus must be established and confirmed at the time of application to Civis. Remember to check with the head of department to ensure that the commitment falls within your duties. Stockholm University's rules for admission and selection criteria must be followed even if students' applications are not submitted via antagning.se.

Blended intensive programs (BIP) within Civis

The CIVIS educational strategy to establish and develop collaborative academic initiatives has led to more than 250 BIPs and thousands of participating students. Through CIVIS, teachers can easily find other academics to collaborate with and through the CIVIS platform, the course becomes accessible to all eligible students at the CIVIS universities.

For information about BIPs within Civis – contact CIVIS Education Officer Anna Koch Öster (anna.koch@su.se)

Within CIVIS, teachers at Stockholm University can easily find academics at other partner universities to plan and organise blended intensive programs (BIPs) with. This means a short course including both a physical part, of a maximum of five days, and a virtual part. Within CIVIS, the credit limit for a BIP is usually 3 – 6 ECTS. If teachers want to give a BIP with a higher number of credits (maximum 9), specific terms apply.

A prerequisite for participation is that it is well-established according to standard routines and practices at the department concerned already in the planning and before the application to CIVIS is submitted. Another prerequisite is that the BIP is given together with at least two other CIVIS universities in the Erasmus program countries and that at least 10 students with Erasmus grant from other CIVIS universities participate.

Students, teachers and staff participating in a mobility within the BIP, can apply for an Erasmus grant for the physical part of the course.

After the BIP is completed and reported, the coordinating department can be granted 4,000 -8,000 Euros in organisational support for planning and implementation, depending on the number of students participating. A prerequisite for this financial support is that at least 10 students undertake an Erasmus mobility. For the maximum amount, at least 20 incoming students with an Erasmus grant are required. Local income for full-year students and full-year achievements may be added, see below.

The following applies to applications regardless of whether a department at Stockholm University is the coordinator or co-organiser of the CIVIS BIP:

  • Remember to anchor your participation in a BIP with the head of department already in the planning phase and before the application is submitted to CIVIS. One reason is how commitment should be included in working hours and possible financial aspects.
  • When a BIP has been granted within CIVIS, internal procedures for BIPs at SU need to be followed. The head of department must sign the application for funding.

Internal procedures for BIP

Special requirements apply to applications where Stockholm University is the coordinator and issues the ECTS:

  • The course should be credit-bearing (3–6 HP). For higher credit numbers (max. 9), special clarification per credit in the course syllabus applies.
  • The BIP should be formally established as a course at Stockholm University (by decision on the establishment and adoption of a syllabus). This applies to courses on 1st and 2nd cycles. For courses at 3rd cycle a course plan or course description can be decided in accordance with the normal routines at the department. To allow enough time for these administrative procedures, contact the responsible faculty office as early as possible.
  • The content of the BIP should be suitable for one of the following five interdisciplinary thematic areas of CIVIS:
    • Hub 1 Climate, Environment and Energy
    • Hub 2 Society, Culture and Cultural Heritage
    • Hub 3 Health
    • Hub 4 Cities, Territories and Mobility
    • Hub 5 Digital and Technological Development
  • The director of studies and international coordinator in the department are particularly concerned. It is necessary that the teacher applying for a BIP coordinates this with their department before submitting the application.
  • Regardless if the Stockholm University department is coordinating or co-participating, the internal administrative procedures follow.
    Administration of student mobility (in Swedish).
  • Granted BIP courses are not advertised on universityadmissions.se, but on the CIVIS platform where eligible students from CIVIS universities, including Stockholm University, apply for the courses. Selection is made jointly by the course teachers. Stockholm University's rules for admission and selection criteria must be met even if the application is not made via antagning.se. Students are admitted in Ladok by the department which will thus receive income for full-year students and full-year achievements respectively.

Coordinate with the head of department, director of studies and international coordinator (or equivalent) early on. Several people in the department are involved when coordinating a BIP.

A BIP is an excellent opportunity to obtain funding for a second edition of an existing course or for developing a CIVIS activity into a formal course. BIPs also make it possible to initiate new collaborations with colleagues at the other CIVIS partner universities.

Open labs

The alliance of all universities has established Open Labs as a structured form of cooperation where the university meets partners in the city or region, such as authorities, companies, associations and politicians. Within the framework of an Open Lab, collaboration takes place on important local issues to implement various collaborative projects or initiate applications for research funding, for example from the EU's structural funds.

SU's open lab

Multilingualism

At the universities within the Civis alliance, there is a wide range of education in English, not least at advanced and doctoral levels. At the same time, an important goal of the European University is to promote multilingualism and develop students' knowledge of languages ​​other than their mother tongue and English. At the Civis universities, much education is conducted in French, Greek, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, German and Swedish. The alliance will therefore develop various types of language support and language development activities to create better conditions for students to be able to follow instruction in these languages. Stockholm University's language café has been opened for Civis students.

Stockholms university's language café

Africa and the Mediterranean region

Several of the Civis universities are located in the Mediterranean region and all the higher education institutions in the alliance collaborate with universities and other organizations in various countries in Africa. The Mediterranean region and Africa are therefore priority geographical areas within the alliance for collaborations in education, research and innovation. Civis now has collaboration agreements with six selected African universities to work together on societal challenges.

Research and Innovation Strategy for CIVIS, RIS4CIVIS

The focus from the start in Civis is education, but in order to broaden the work within Civis, the project Research and Innovation Strategy for Civis, RIS4CIVIS, started in spring 2021. RIS4CIVIS will end in 2023 and the results will then be integrated into Civis.

RIS4CIVIS website

Contact

There are many people who are active and have various assignments within Civis at SU, the list below only includes administrative staff who can help you as an SU employee further if you have questions and concerns regarding Civis.

If you and your department/unit/section/faculty would like to know more about the opportunities available within Civis, it is great to contact us for more information or to book a presentation.

Johanna Diehl:

  • Institutional Coordinator (previously named project manager)
  • Overall responsibility for SU's participation in Civis.
  • Works primarily towards the alliance, but also with certain internal issues.
  • E-mail: johanna.diehl@su.se
  • Telephone: 08-16 23 84

Sara Laginder:

  • Civis Coordinator
  • Internal coordination of Civis at SU.
  • Administrative Support Hub 1: Climate, Environment, Energy
  • E-mail: sara.laginder@su.se
  • Telephone: 08-16 27 03

Pär Brännström:

  • Project manager RIS4CIVIS:
  • Administrative support to Ström 1, work packages 2 and 3
  • E-mail: par.brannstrom@su.se
  • Telephone: 08-16 47 17

Anna Koch Öster:

  • Civis Education Officer
  • Support for teachers at SU in planning and developing joint education within Civis, e.g. so-called blended intensive programs, BIP.
  • E-mail: anna.koch@su.se
  • Telephone: 08-16 11 80

Erik Rosenberg:

  • Civis Mobility Officer
  • Responsible for mobilities that take place within the framework of Civis.
  • E-mail: erik.rosenberg@su.se
  • Telephone: 08-16 12 29

Serena Nobili:

Markus Forslund:

The departments manage and coordinate international student exchange.

Contact information for all of SU's departmental international coordinators.

CIVIS website: civis.eu
About ”European Universities” on the European Commissions website

Last updated: 2025-09-30

Source: Kommunikationsavdelningen/Studentavdelning