After a period where travelling was highly restricted, the Arqus Management Team and the Arqus Student Council have had the opportunity to hold a 3-day meeting each at the University of Granada. From 6th to 8th September, 18 students of the Arqus Student Council came together to discuss different issues related to the students' perspective of the Alliance, the structure of their co-working, the possibilities of collaboration with the European Students’ Union, challenges to overcome, or activities that could be carried out by the students.
“Finally, we were able to meet in person after the long days of the pandemic. It was a real pleasure to see my colleagues from the student council in person. We got to experience how eager we are to contribute to the success of the Arqus and how motivated everyone is. I'm truly looking forward to work on our shared vision in the future - be it virtually or in-person”, says Lasse Emcken, President of the Arqus Student Council.
Overlapping part of their programmes, from 8th to 10th September, more than 20 members of the Arqus Management Team have gathered also to analyze aspects of the present and future of the Alliance and its management, as well as to share best practices and further develop the Alliance collaboration.
This occasion also brought the chance for the Student Council and the Management Team to hold a 2,5-hour joint meeting on 8th September, where the students presented the conclusions of their sessions and where the student engagement in Arqus was the main topic.
“These in-person meetings have constituted a real boost to Arqus as an alliance after long months of exclusively virtual events and work. The intense work over this whole week has been extremely productive, especially for team-building and planning the next year of Arqus activity. It has also been specially enriching to exchange perspectives with the students, whose engagement is key to the success of the initiative,” says Dorothy Kelly, Arqus Coordinator and Vice-rector for Internationalization at the University of Granada.
This is the preamble of the Arqus Annual Conference 2021, which will take place in Vilnius from 5th to 7th October, where more than 200 people involved in the Arqus Alliance will come together to share results and achievements and to discuss the future of the Alliance.