Arqus Alliance: the Rectors of the seven universities sign the partnership agreement
18.10.2019
The Arqus European University Alliance was presented today, Friday 18th October, in a public event at the University of Granada, the coordinating institution. Arqus brings together the universities of Padua, Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 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.
“It is a great opportunity.“ University of Padua’s Rector Rosario Rizzuto announces with satisfaction, “There are seven prestigious European universities, from Granada to Vilnius, passing through Padua. Working together on the goals that modern universities must set for themselves, namely relationships with its territory, student services, internationalization, research, teaching, as well as the inclusion and rights of citizens. These are high objectives in which the comparison in Europe offers to further boost knowledge and the capacity for innovation."
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.
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. Prof. Alessandro Paccagnella, Vice Rector for International Relations of the University of Padua and delgate at the ceremony, comments the agreement in Granada: “The activities of the Arqus European University Alliance, includes an alliance that will project the University of Padua towards the future. Projecting us towards a more integrated Europe through the participation of the seven signatory universities that started from the cultural tradition we each share in teaching and conducting research. Arqus is the bridge that will project us in the coming years towards the design of a new university.”
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.
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.
The Arqus 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.
The Arqus Rectors’ Council: video
