The Barcelona Science and Technology Hub (SciTech DiploHub) will accommodate the headquarters of the European Network of Global Alumni Agencies (ENGAGE) in its offices in Barcelona. The network will be used for coordinating projects for retaining highly qualified talent and boosting the European Union’s positioning within the world’s educational system.

The news was announced within the framework of the 32nd edition of the European Association for International Education (EAIE), Europe’s most important higher-education fair, which was held for the first time in Barcelona. The network will receive EU support through the Foreign Policy Instruments Service, and will have representatives from countries like Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

A welcoming city for students from around the world

Barcelona was selected as the headquarters for this network thanks to its large capacity for attracting international students and researchers, given the more than 35,000 foreign-national students living in the city. According to data from the Catalan government, international doctoral students represented 38.3% of all students in the 2020-2021 academic year.

Barcelona is also the number-one city in the world in terms of having its own network for capturing international talent, Barcelona Alumni, which was set up in 2018 and has over 1,000 members from some thirty countries.

Meeting the challenges of higher education

The aim of this project is to share and discuss policies and good practices for internationalising higher education and student and researcher mobility. One of the main tasks of the ENGAGE office will be attracting European funds to the city in areas such as student mobility and inter-university cooperation, under programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe, and the Next Generation funds.