The 2025 Arqus Annual Conference kicks off today in Leipzig!

The 5th Arqus Annual Conference is kicking off today at Leipzig University, under the theme “European Universities at the crossroads”. This Arqus major event, spanning from Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 April, is bringing together over 250 registered participants to reflect on the evolving landscape of European higher education and the European Universities Initiative.

The conference serves as the annual gathering for the Arqus community, featuring university leadership, students, academics and staff from partner universities, members of the Arqus International Advisory Board (IAB), experts and colleagues from CHARM-EU, Circle-U, CIVIS, EUTOPIA, INGENIUM, Open-EU and UNITA Alliances.

This Arqus Annual Conference seeks to share best practices and innovative solutions across institutions, identify strategies and pathways to strengthen collaboration within alliances, discuss challenges and possible solutions affecting the European Universities Initiative, and make recommendations for policy adjustments to enhance the role of alliances.

Right after the formal opening and welcome by Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University and Dorothy Kelly, Arqus Coordinator, the Conference will hold the first plenary session: “Legal Entity: The future for European University Alliances”. This session, at 10:30-12:00, will be moderated by Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University, and Eeva Leinonen, President of Maynooth University. The participating speakers will be Stefan Lang (CIVIS), Barbara Gagliardi (UNITA) and Daniel Santos (INGENIUM).

The second plenary session on “Research strategies and collaborative research projects within European University Alliances” will take place this afternoon, from 13:30 to 15:00. Members of different alliances will discuss how research networks across institutions can build sustainable, cross-border research initiatives. The panel will be moderated by Patrycja Matusz, Vice-Rector from the University of Wrocław and Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Science for European Affairs and the Presidency of the Republic of Poland in the Council of the European Union. And the speakers will be Bálint Markó (EUTOPIA), Sergio Villanueva (CHARM-EU), Lucas Zinner (Circle-U) and Cedric Jürgensen (Arqus).

Tomorrow, 3 April, the third and final plenary session “Common digital infrastructures as tools and resources for European University Alliances” will be held from 9:00 to 10:30. Mireille van Poppel, Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Equal Opportunities at the University of Graz, will moderate the session. Sebastian Schöttler (EUTOPIA), Alex Hinojo (Open-EU), Colin Tück (expert) and Lucas de Uña (Arqus Student Council) will participate as well.

At 11:30, the winners of the third edition of the Arqus Teaching Excellence Award will be announced and will present their innovative projects.

The Closing of the Conference will be addressed by Uršulė Barkauskaitė, Vice-President of the Arqus Student Council, Dorothy Kelly, Arqus Coordinator, and Eva Inés Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University. Eeva Leinonen, President of Maynooth University, will announce the next Arqus Annual Conference, to be held in July 2026.

The plenary sessions are available to watch on the Arqus YouTube channel.

More information and the programme are available on the event webpage.