Unite! students meet in Wrocław for the first SURE! Forum
Seventeen student representatives from UPC, TU Darmstadt, Aalto, KTH, ULisboa and Wrocław Tech met in Poland to take part in workshops and discussions on cooperation in the coming months.
Unite! students met in Wrocław. The first-ever SURE! Forum on cooperation, communication and responsibility. How do you communicate within an international team? How do you tell a story that truly convinces others? And who, in fact, bears responsibility for the direction in which technology develops? These were the questions explored by participants of the first-ever Unite! SURE! Forum, held at Wrocław Tech.
External partners also participated in the event along with student representatives. The opening session featured Joanna Lindberg-Sterzyńska, Director of the Regional Representation of the European Commission in Poland. Workshops were led not only by experts from Wrocław Tech but also by leaders from well-known global companies, giving students a rare opportunity to work directly with practitioners.
“Students are at the heart of Unite! The alliance was created with them in mind, to provide future engineers with the best possible conditions for studying: access to international collaboration, the latest knowledge, and real experience gained through teamwork with peers from across Europe. That is why we are especially pleased that the first-ever SURE! Forum could take place here in Wrocław and that our university is actively helping to create a space where students can meet, exchange ideas and jointly design solutions for the future,”
The programme combined the development of practical skills with reflection on the role of universities in a rapidly changing world. Workshops focused, among other topics, on communication within European university alliances (both internal and intercultural), as well as external communication, including students’ presence on social media. Participants also worked on issues such as team and project management, leadership in the academic environment and the art of communication in a global world.
The Forum, however, was not a series of lectures. It was designed as a working space: a place where students could confront their ideas directly with experienced experts. The starting point was a simple principle: if you cannot tell a story, you cannot lead. During a session with one of the global bank representatives, participants set aside corporate jargon and analysed how clear communication influences leadership. A workshop led by BNY focused on the challenges of global collaboration and showed how much can be “lost in translation” when people from different cultures try to move in the same direction.
“We didn’t come here just to sit in a room and nod along. The energy was completely different. We genuinely questioned the way we usually talk to each other and how decisions are made about the future of technology, universities and society.”
The issue of responsibility became a central theme of one of the workshop sessions. The discussion shifted from how technology works to who actually holds control over it. Students debated ethics, power, and the role of universities in shaping technological change. The reflections continued during the critical design thinking workshop, where participants examined their own assumptions about problem-solving.
For many participants, the Forum was also an opportunity to build relationships across the entire alliance:
“SURE! Forum was a truly dynamic experience. The programme of workshops and accompanying events made the past few days both very valuable and unforgettable. I especially enjoyed meeting students from Wrocław Tech and having the chance to visit beautiful Wrocław. I am very grateful to all the organisers who devoted so much time to making this event happen.”
The Forum also included the second edition of the Let’s Unite! Fair, open to the entire community of Wrocław Tech. During the poster session, SURE students shared insights into academic life and everyday student experiences in their countries. They also presented the activities of local student organisations and projects carried out within the Unite! network, with particular emphasis on initiatives funded through the Seed Fund programme.
For the Wrocław Tech community, it was a unique opportunity to meet students from partner universities and learn more about the key initiatives being developed within the alliance.
“Unlike the Dialogues, which include many formal meetings and discussions, the Forum took the form of workshops organised under the ‘Students for Students’ formula. This allowed us to further develop our skills, particularly in communication and project work. We also discussed our internal structures, new criteria for our activities, and the challenges we face as Unite! enters the next phase of the project.”
A few days of workshops, discussions and joint work demonstrated one thing: within Unite!, students want to act, not just talk. The meeting in Wrocław marked the beginning of further initiatives that will be developed in the coming months by students from partner universities.