Communities of Practice

The Arqus Communities of Practice are communities of professionals that come together for bench- and peer-learning in all areas of institutional activity, as well as to offer staff development opportunities across all partner institutions.

Arqus is working in the establishment of concentric, intersecting and interlinked networks of members of each of our universities, building a sense of online community and Arqus identity. In order to move forward in building a truly European University, Arqus believes that the many existing formal and informal working groups, committees and other groupings constitute the basis for our joint institutional learning and transformational approach.

Now, a group of professionals is creating the structure to offer an upscaled and institutionalized framework for Arqus Communities not only in those areas already identified as key to the building of our shared future, but also in emerging areas for cooperation.

The concept of Communities of Practice, borrowed from learning theory, is that of “systems of collective critical inquiry and reflection focussed on building a shared identity and collective intelligence garnered over time” (Nussbaum-Beach and Hall, 2012); it fits perfectly with Arqus’ self-conception as a “laboratory for institutional learning”, but grounds specific activities in their respective domains, thus weaving the social fabric required to enable collective learning.

Arqus will offer each Community a collaborative space with the three major objectives of community building, bench- and peer-learning, and staff development.

Joint activities, discussions, information sharing channels, identification of problems and proposal of solutions will be some of the activities carried out by these communities.

Domain-based joint staff development is an important tool for the long-term construction of the Alliance, and Communities of Practice are natural seedbeds for peer learning to take place and then be disseminated beyond those participating directly. For that reason, each Community of Practice should count on the design of a staff development programme for the corresponding domain, to be implemented on a continuous basis jointly during the funding period and beyond. Staff development will take the form of joint, flexible online, face-2-face or blended learning activities, which should be fully accessible. Learning acquired will be certified by the Arqus Academy and will be recognized by each partner university.

Contact the Project Officer at your university for more information: