The Arqus European University Alliance currently brings together the universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon, Minho, Padua, Vilnius and Wroclaw, nine prestigious universities who share the conviction that European cooperation is essential to the global future of their institutions. Arqus, being a people-centered Alliance, aims to promote a multilingual, international, entrepreneurial and innovative approach in the provision of education, research and innovation.
In the Arqus Joint Strategy 2022 – 2032, three main periods are defined: the current initial pilot period devoted to laying the foundations of the Alliance (2019 – 2022), the new period ahead where major milestones will be achieved (2022 – 2026), and a third period for finishing touches towards the full implementation of the Alliance (2026 – 2032).
This long-term strategy builds on the Alliance’s experience of working together in the pilot period, in particular during the first Erasmus+ and DAAD funding as well as the Horizon 2020 funding (Arqus Research & Innovation). Not least, the Alliance also draws from the many lessons learned due to the COVID 19 pandemic and from the valuable contributions of the new members Minho and Wroclaw, which were incorporated at the end of 2021. During this initial phase, an immense effort has been made to reduce and/or remove the barriers to effective cooperation between the university members through building trust as well as sharing policies, structures and resources. Although this is an ongoing and cross-cutting effort, we are now already better prepared to respond in the coming years to major European and global challenges.
Between 2022 and 2026, Arqus will continue consolidating its joint academic offer, reinforcing innovation in teaching, learning and assessment, increasing and diversifying mobility of all kinds for students and staff, and implementing a Joint Research Action Plan. It will also deepen its focus on communities, promoting student and staff engagement through three separate initiatives:
- Arqus Living Lab, as a generator of innovative responses to Climate Change & Sustainable Development; Artificial Intelligence & Digital Transformation; European Identity & Heritage.
- Arqus Communities of Practice will address domain-based challenges for professional and academic staff.
- Arqus Student Agora will constitute a dynamic framework for student-led co-creation initiatives.
„Arqus is working on the design, testing and implementation of an innovative model for deep inter-university cooperation, which will serve as the basis for a truly European campus fulfilling all the missions of a university for the 21st century. We are very much looking forward to the 10 years ahead, where different action plans will help us consolidate this long-term initiative that will change and is already changing the higher education scene“, says Dorothy Kelly, Coordinator of the Arqus Alliance and Vice-Rector for Internationalization at the University of Granada