Experts from SRCE participated in the UNIC working conference "Crossing The Silos and Engaging with Cities," held at the University of Oulu in Finland from September 24 to 26, 2024. The UNIC Alliance, which includes the University of Zagreb, is a coalition of 10 universities from post-industrial cities. As part of its involvement in UNIC projects, SRCE has developed the Virtual Campus.
The Virtual Campus is an information system that serves as a catalog of courses and programs within the alliance. It enables inter-university data exchange previously unachievable, facilitating virtual mobility and supporting physical mobility. The establishment of such virtual campuses significantly aids student virtual mobility, the issuance and verification of European student cards, support for joint study programs, and the presentation of research results and networking of researchers within the universities included in the virtual campus.
SRCE’s Assistant Director Ognjen Orel, Ph. D. and Alen Novosel, Head of Virtual Campus Development, held a panel discussion on the current functionalities of the Virtual Campus, focusing on supporting student virtual mobility and researcher networking. The Virtual Campus relies on using existing international systems and standards, including participation from electronic identity providers from all universities in the eduGAIN system, the requirement to assign a European Student Identifier (ESI) to students, and interoperability with ORCID and OpenAIRE systems. The importance of integrating the Virtual Campus with local systems used by alliance universities was also highlighted, particularly with Student Management Systems (SMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS), to provide a seamless study experience for students.
This system, developed by SRCE, was also showcased at other related workshops, and Ognjen Orel, Ph. D. participated in a UNIC Council meeting.
