Participants at this year’s conference include university leaders, students, researchers and staff from the nine partner universities, members of the Arqus International Advisory Board (IAB) and representatives of the university alliances CHARM-EU, Circle-U, CIVIS, EUTOPIA, INGENIUM, Open-EU and UNITA .
The aim of the 2025 Arqus Annual Conference is to share best practices and innovative solutions across institutions, identify strategies and pathways to strengthen collaboration within alliances, discuss challenges and possible solutions for the European Universities Initiative and make recommendations for policy adjustments to enhance the role of alliances.
Right after the official opening and welcome, which will be given by Eva Inés Obergfell, rector of Leipzig University and Dorothy Kelly, the Arqus coordinator, the first plenary session “Legal Entity: The future for European University Alliances” will begin. This session will take place from 10:30 am to 12 noon and will be moderated by Eva Inés Obergfell and Eeva Leinonen, president of Maynooth University.
The second plenary session “Research strategies and collaborative research projects within European University Alliances” will be held in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3 pm. This will be a panel discussion at which members from four different alliances will discuss how research networks across institutions can build sustainable, cross-border research initiatives. It will be moderated by Patrycja Matusz, vice-rector of the University of Wrocław.
The third and final plenary session “Common digital infrastructures as tools and resources for European University Alliances” will take place on 3 April from 9 to 10:30 am. Mireille van Poppel, vice-rector for internationalisation and equal opportunities at the University of Graz, will moderate the session.
Finally, at 11:30 am, the recipients of the third Arqus Teaching Excellence Award will be announced and their innovative projects presented.
The conference will close with remarks from Uršulė Barkauskaitė, vice-president of the Arqus Student Council, and Dorothy Kelly as well as information about the next Arqus annual conference at Maynooth University in July 2026.
You can follow all of the plenary sessions live on the Arqus YouTube channel.
For more information and to access the programme, go to the Arqus website.