Coimbra Group

Coimbra Group

Founded in 1985 and formally constituted by Charter in 1987, the Coimbra Group is a network of European universities which gathers 39 of the older universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Salamanca, Bristol, Leuven/Louvain, Montpellier, Uppsala, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Jagiellonian, Dublin, Bologna, Siena, Leiden, Coimbra, Barcelona and Granada.
The group took its name from one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Coincidentally, the University of Coimbra celebrated its 700th anniversary that same year, 1985.

Mission
Quote from the Coimbra Group website (see below for link):
Founded in 1985 and formally constituted by Charter in 1987, the Coimbra Group is an association of long-established European multidisciplinary universities of high international standard committed to creating special academic and cultural ties in order to promote, for the benefit of its members, internationalisation, academic collaboration, excellence in learning and research, and service to society. It is also the purpose of the Group to influence European educational policy and to develop best practice through the mutual exchange of experience