The Arqus European University Alliance was established in 2018 as consortium between the universities of Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius e Wroclaw aiming to enhance the education of critically engaged citizens in order to build a multicultural, multilingual and inclusive Europe, through the interchange of knowledge and experience of its members.

Arqus aims to consolidate a joint governance structure to facilitate the development of consensual joint policies and action plans, 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.

Arqus builds on the principles on core values of democracy, the rule of law, respect for diversity and human rights, solidarity and the pursuit of peace and justice in Europe and the world, by bringing universities into being spaces of freedom, pluralism, dedicated to the generation and dissemination of knowledge through research, education, innovation and culture for sustainable societal progress.