On Friday 18th October the ARQUS European University Alliance, uniting universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon, Padova and Vilnius was presented in a public event at the University of Granada, the coordinating institution.
The presentation followed the formal constitution of the Arqus Rectors’ Council, the governing body responsible for establishing general policy, long-term and medium-term strategies, and major goals for the Alliance. The Alliance is one of the seventeen selected for funding by the European Commission in the first pilot round of this new flagship initiative within the Erasmus+ programme.
According to the Vice Rector of Vilnius University Mr. Rimantas Jankauskas, the newly established alliance would benefit the university in terms of internationalization, teaching and learning, student and staff mobility, promoting entrepreneurship and improving its regional and global competitiveness.
‘The new alliance marks a milestone in how we perceive partnership between higher education institutions. We are bringing it to new heights and on unprecedented scale. Our alliance unites comprehensive research universities that are highly skilled in different areas and that is what gives our partnership potential we have never seen before. European Commission invest a great deal into this initiative and we hope our national government bodies will also comprehend the meaning and benefits of what we are about to do’, – Mr. Jankauskas, Vice Rector of Vilnius University said in a joint press conference.
The Undersecretary at the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities, Pablo Martín González, reiterated congratulations from the Ministry for the eleven consortia with Spanish participation, and in particular for the three consortia coordinated by Spanish universities: the University of the Seas, coordinated by the University of Cadiz; Charm-EU, coordinated by the University of Barcelona; and Arqus, coordinated by the University of Granada. He also stressed the Ministry’s support for the consortia, both through national co-funding and by undertaking to modify legislation which constitutes an obstacle to further European integration.
In the public presentation of the major goals and structure of the Alliance, the coordinator Prof. Dorothy Kelly underlined the ambition of this initiative, intended to promote a structural, systemic and sustainable transformation of the partner universities and, beyond them, of the European higher education system.
During the constitution of the Rectors’ Council, the rectors have signed the partnership agreement outlining commitments and internal workings of the network for the next three years. During the months of October and November the six Action Line Boards together with the Student Council are being constituted to launch the first three-year work programme. This ambitious programme covers activities in the areas of Joint academic offer and mobility, Inclusion, Research Support, Entrepreneurship, Multilingualism and European Citizenship, each led by one of the partner universities.
Executive Summary of Arqus
The Arqus European University Alliance brings together the universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon, Padova and Vilnius, seven longstanding comprehensive research universities who share extensive experience in joint projects in many fields, and a common profile as internationalized institutions with deep regional engagement in medium-sized cities.
The Arqus European University Alliance aspires to build on the member universities’ sound prior experience in cooperation in order to achieve a high level of integration in its members’ policies and action plans in order to:
- enhance the education of critically engaged European and global citizens who are able and willing to contribute to a multicultural, multilingual and inclusive Europe which is open to the world;
- increase and improve the joint research capacity of the partner universities;
- better respond to the grand societal challenges of the 21st century in Europe and beyond.
The principal ambition of the Arqus Alliance is to act jointly as a laboratory for institutional learning from which to move forward in the design, testing and implementation of an innovative model for deep inter-university cooperation. The Alliance aims to consolidate a joint governance structure to facilitate the development of consensual joint policies and action plans, to consolidate participative structures to facilitate cross-cutting integration at all levels of the partner institutions, and to share its experience with other groupings in order to communicate the added value to be found in its model of integration.
The Arqus Alliance aims to centre its efforts on enabling people: enabling a widely diverse student body and enhancing their learning experience; enabling a similarly diverse staff community and promoting their individual and collective professional development; enabling society at large by opening our doors and fully responding to the mission it has entrusted us.
Pranešimą paskelbė: Ervinas Spūdys, Vilniaus universitetas