President Higgins gives leading academic address at NUIG
A group of elite university leaders from across the world gathered at NUIG today for the 2013 Coimbra Annual conference.
It's 25 years since the college last hosted the event.
President Michael D. Higgins, who was both a student and a lecturer at NUIG, gave a keynote address to the group of academia earlier.
He told the the crowd that a European Union confident of its intellectual tradition has a real contribution to make global challenges.
He added that now, more than ever, universities have a central role to play given the loss of trust in so many institutions and decision-makers.
The Coimbra group is an association of long-established European multidisciplinary universities of high international standard.
It's aim is to promote academic and cultural ties to benefit its members.