EU: Prof Noel Whelan of the University of Limerick has been elected first president of the European University Foundation (EUF).
Prof Whelan, a former secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, is currently vice-president of UL, where he has worked in building links with universities in other countries, including China.
The Luxembourg-based EUF oversees the Campus Europae university project, made up of 20 universities in the EU and eastern Europe. It aims to develop inter-university degree programmes,and caters for more than 300,000 students.
Speaking at the announcement of his election, Prof Whelan said the need to identify what individual universities and countries could contribute to Europe lay at the core of the Campus Europae project.
Students who graduated from the project would, he said, have "a deep understanding of the essence of Europe".