Welcome to the first edition of MCO Connect, a new initiative from the Magna Charta Observatory.
As we help to enable signatories to embrace the Magna Charta Universitatum (MCU 2020) we thought it would be helpful to introduce a newsletter to share information on a regular basis and seek your engagement in activities relating to university values and current issues.
The pandemic has caused us to reflect on how we might best respond to the climate emergency: in the words of the MCU 2020, how we should ‘engage with and respond to the aspirations and challenges of the world…and contribute to sustainability’. The number of people participating in our online webinars is many times more than the number who had previously attended our in-person events.
However, we recognise that webinars are different, afford only limited opportunities for engagement and many of the benefits of meeting in person are not possible in a virtual forum. Hence, we have decided to continue to organise a webinar programme and also host the annual in-person conference and signing ceremony in Bologna in September 2022. Specific training events may be either physical or virtual depending on their objectives. I look forward to sharing more details about these opportunities very soon.
To date, 373 signatories of the original 1988 MCU and additional universities have signed the new version. We have been encouraged by this enthusiastic response since the virtual launch of the MCU 2020 last summer and continue to welcome new signatories who prescribe to the values and responsibilities set out in the document.
Finally, we continue to support the Living Values project which works to help universities define and live their values. These guidelines and their application have now been used by universities in 14 countries with very positive outcomes.
As always, we invite you to work with us and get in touch <<email link>> regarding any of these opportunities or items in this newsletter. Thank you for your interest and support of the MCO and our work.
Dr. Patrick Deane
President of the Governing Council
