Polytechnic of Porto promotes, with the Center for Eurorrexinal Studies Galicia-North of Portugal (CEER), universities in the region and the European Commission, a project to support the mobility of people with functional diversity in the Euroregion Galicia-North of Portugal.
The project, coordinated and presented by the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) of the Euroregion Galicia-Norte de Portugal, was one of those selected by the European Commission and the Association of the Border Regions of Europe (ARFE) in the 2020 competition of the B-Solutions Program and falls within the thematic area of institutional cooperation.
Designated "Elimination of barriers and 360º assessment of student mobility with functional diversity in the higher education ecosystem of the Eurorregión GNP", the project consists of a joint-force of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from Galicia and the North of Portugal, such as the Polytechnic of Porto (P.PORTO), the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), the University of Vigo (UVigo), the University of Coruña (UDC) and the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC).
Eliminating existing barriers and administrative obstacles in the university system of the Euroregion Galicia-Norte de Portugal is the main objective of this program, in order to ensure and facilitate the inter-university mobility of people with functional diversity, promoting the inclusion of student mobility.
According to the Pro President of the Polytechnic of Porto for the area of internationalization, José Carlos Quadrado, “P.PORTO's focus on supporting cohesion policies means finding ways to ensure that everyone in our sphere of influence has equal access to work, education, health, as well as other services. "" Ultimately, "he points out," that no individual is left behind. This applies most of the time to border regions like the one between the North of Portugal and Galicia where this equal access is not always guaranteed due to administrative, legal and institutional bottlenecks, due to differences between the two neighboring countries. "For the Pro-President," the improvement of this line of cooperation will allow students, teachers and employees of the institutions to have more facilities in traveling to institutions across the border. "
The B-Solutions program
This contest is managed by ARFE - Associação of the Border Regions of Europe, an organization whose objective is to represent the interests of European border and cross-border regions both at European level, at national and regional level and financed by the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) of the European Commission. B-Solutions aims to eliminate administrative barriers and obstacles in different axes of cross-border cooperation. The program provides expert advice on selected cross-border cooperation with the aim of analyzing possible paths of cooperation and potential solutions.
