Offene Calls für Forschende und Lehrende

The Arqus Alliance is thrilled to announce the launch of the fourth Arqus Teaching Excellence Award contest. This prestigious award seeks to recognize educators who exemplify innovation and excellence in their pedagogical practices, fostering a culture of learning that transcends disciplinary boundaries and empowers students from diverse backgrounds to thrive in inclusive, community-based and dynamic learning environments.

In line with our mission to promote collaborative and inclusive education, the Arqus Teaching Excellence Award will honour teaching initiatives and projects that are based on research-informed teaching and learning approaches and prioritize the integral development and empowerment of students. Teaching initiatives and projects implemented from the start of the academic year 2023/2024 will be considered for this award. As we embark on this journey to celebrate teaching excellence, we invite nominations that embody the following core criteria:

1. Student-Centered Teaching:

Consistent use of student-centered approaches that cater to the diverse needs of learners, fostering inclusive education practices.

2. Assessment that drives students’ learning:

Consistent use of assessment strategies and feedback methods that support learning and development, encouraging meta-reflection on and facilitating dialogue about learning processes.

3. Research-informed teaching and learning approaches:

Use of research-informed didactical approaches to enhance learning outcomes.

4. Integration of the international perspective:

Incorporation of an international perspective to enrich the learning experience and foster cross-cultural understanding. This may include, but is not limited to, integrating international case studies, collaborating with international partners or experts, facilitating cross-cultural exchanges or discussions, incorporating global issues and perspectives into the curriculum or other activities that prepare future graduates to thrive in a globalized world.

5. Transferability and adaptability:

Development of teaching initiatives that are transferable and adaptable to further educational contexts, promoting scalability and sustainability of the initiative.

6. Relevance and impact:

Reflection by the teacher on the relevance and impact of the project on students‘ learning, demonstrating its significance in enhancing teaching and learning practices.

Nomination Process:

Interested individuals or teams of teachers are encouraged to submit nominations for the Arqus Teaching Excellence Awards by 15 December.

Nominations should include a comprehensive description of the teaching initiative, highlighting its alignment with the criteria outlined above. Please note that not all criteria need to be met to apply or win; initiatives demonstrating exceptional achievement in limited number of areas may still be eligible for recognition. Supporting materials such as course syllabi, student feedback, and evidence of impact are highly valued.

In the initial step of the selection process, each partner university will internally select the three best applications. These applications will then be forwarded to the Arqus Jury, consisting of experts in teaching and learning from all partner universities, as well as three students, who will carefully evaluate them and by the 1st of March select two winners from among the finalists.

The Award will be presented at the Arqus Annual Conference in University of Leipzig (2-4 April 2025). The award winners will be invited to participate in the conference to give a guest lecture or workshop for teachers of the Arqus Alliance.

As a token of appreciation for their dedication and innovation, winners of the Arqus Teaching Excellence Award will receive a prize of 5,000 EUR to further advance their teaching initiatives and promote excellence in higher education.

Please note that the number of winners and the prize amount may be subject to change based on the number of exceptional applications received.

Let us come together to honor and celebrate the remarkable efforts of educators within the Arqus Alliance who are shaping the future of university teaching. Together, we can inspire excellence and innovation in higher education.

Please submit the full application by 15 December 2024, sending the application form via email to: teaching-award(at)arqus-alliance.eu.

For inquiries regarding Arqus Teaching Excellence Awards, please contact your local Arqus coordinator.

Arqus opens the 7^th call for expressions of interest to continue constituting formal Communities of Practice within the Arqus Alliance, either from pre-existing or entirely new groups of professionals.

The application deadline for this call is 12 February 2025. In the following sections, the requirements, conditions and the process of proposals’ submission are detailed.

Introduction

As Arqus situates people at the centre of our approach to building a European University, our strategy reinforces and institutionalises the diverse Arqus communities which have been built so far, including Arqus Communities of Practice. 

One of the objectives of European University Alliances is that of community- and identity-building within and across our member universities. Despite the difficulties imposed by the pandemic, we have been able to establish 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 our step-by-step approach to building a truly European University, Arqus believes that the many existing formal and informal Task Forces, Working Groups, committees and other groupings constitute the basis for our joint institutional learning and transformational approach. This Work Package aims to offer an upscaled and institutionalised 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. These Communities of Practice will also constitute a key framework for the rapid and smooth incorporation of our new members, facilitating institution-wide engagement on their part. 

During the first three years of Arqus activity, many multi-level communities have arisen, such as the Language Centre directors, for example.

Requirements and conditions

Members

Proposals should involve professionals or academics from at least 4 of the nine full members of Arqus, and may also involve members from associate partners.

Work Plan

Each CoP will develop its own Work Plan, with the three major objectives in mind:

• Community building
• Bench- and peer-learning
• Staff development 

These Work Plans will propose joint activities, discussions, information sharing channels, and in particular address problems identified by each Community of Practice or by the Arqus governing and coordination bodies, and propose solutions to be implemented at local or Alliance level.

Domain-based staff development

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 Work Plan should include 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 on-line, f2f or blended learning activities, which should be fully accessible, and use where possible the Arqus LMS once it has been developed; materials developed should be deposited in the Arqus repository. Learning acquired will be certified by the Arqus Academy and will be recognized by each partner university.

Benefits

Once constituted, Arqus will offer each Community logistic support where needed from the core Arqus team and, once the Arqus Digital Platform is available, a collaborative space on the Arqus Learning Management System (LMS), other IT solutions for virtual meetings and events.

Similarly, members of Communities will receive formal certification and recognition as established at each Arqus member university.

Submission of proposals

This call for expressions of interest is intended to be open on a permanent basis. Results of proposals will be made every four months, approximately. The results of the proposals received 12 February 2025 will be announced on 20 February 2025.

Proposals are requested on the form available at the end of this document. They should be submitted to the Work Package co-leads, Agnieszka Janik (University of Wroclaw) at: wp3.arqus(at)uwr.edu.pl, and Inmaculada Yuste (University of Granada) at: arqus(at)ugr.es.

If you would like to suggest or to be part of a CoP but do not know anyone who shares the same interest at partner universities, please get in touch with a member of this Work Package or the Project Officer at your university. Please also contact them for any other information.

University of Graz

Kerstin Käfer kerstin.kaefer(at)uni-graz.at

Daniela Stadler daniela.stadler(at)uni-graz.at

Maria Heinemann  maria.heinemann(at)uni-graz.at