Multilingual policies, practices and aspirations within European university alliances

Abstract

The European University Alliances (EUAs) were established to enhance the international competitiveness of higher education institutions in Europe and to promote European values and identity. Although no systematic study of multilingualism in EUAs has been carried out to date, English appears to dominate in several EUAs and their practices. To examine their multilingual strategies, practices and aspirations, this study conducted a survey among the 24 EUAs from the second call. Although none of the EUAs has a formal language policy, multilingualism is cited as a priority in most alliances, and some of them have planned several measures to promote multilingualism and plurilingualism. However, in most EUAs, English dominates both for oral and written internal and external communication. These data suggest that, without formal language policies and implementation plans to promote multilingualism, the linguistic and cultural diversity inherent in the EUAs could be at risk.