Arqus European University Alliance

The Arqus European University Alliance brings together the universities of Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius, and Wroclaw—nine universities with extensive experience in joint projects and a shared profile as internationalized institutions in medium-sized cities with strong regional connections.

Arqus aims to enhance the student experience and improve employability by sharing existing academic offerings and developing new joint flexible programs across all three cycles, including microcredentials.

Through Arqus Joint Master's Programs, the Alliance demonstrates its commitment to student-centered and research-based learning. These programs are designed with a shared perspective among Arqus universities, focusing on flexible curricula, evaluation, and accreditation processes to suit student needs and industry demands.

Among these joint programs is the newly launched and accredited Master's in International Cybersecurity and Cyberintelligence, offering specialized training for careers in a rapidly evolving field. This program integrates expertise from across the Arqus universities to provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge curriculum in cybersecurity and cyberintelligence.

Our core values

Arqus acts in defense and promotion of:

• The core European 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.
• The core university values are expressed in the Magna Charta Universitatum.
• The unique role played by universities as open places of freedom, pluralism, and democratic participation, dedicated to the generation and dissemination of knowledge through research, education, innovation, and culture for sustainable societal progress.
• The shared understanding of higher education as a public good and a public responsibility serves purposes of individual, social, economic, and cultural development.
• The conviction is that through alliances people and institutions are stronger in their pursuit of the common good.

Our major goals

• Effective barrier-free cooperation at all levels of institutional activity in order to better respond to existing and emerging societal challenges.
• Joint evidence-based institutional learning, arising from acting as a common laboratory beyond the mainstream, innovating in pursuit of systemic, structural, and sustainable impact.
• Engaged communities of learners, academics, professionals, and alumni in multi-level habitats working together for sustainable progress.
• Co-created attractive flexible challenge-based and research-driven academic offer.
• Joint transformational disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and innovation.
• Enhanced intercultural competence, global understanding, and respect for diversity throughout our communities.

All associated universities will assist all non-European citizens enrolling in our joint master’s program in their Visa application process. The expected general process to be followed by all non-EU students for our Master in International Cybersecurity and Cyberintelligence is as follows:

1. Apply for a Schengen student visa for 365 days in Italy and obtain a residence permit for 1 year also during the first semester.
2. Travel to Vilnius with the Italian residence permit, students can simply register and obtain the Lithuanian residence permit or use the flexibility of the national law and stay with the Italian resident permit.
3. Students will have to apply for a new student visa to Spain while living in Lithuania. The UGR will support students in applying for a visa at the Spanish consulate in Lithuania.
4. They will have a year of Spanish VISA that will allow them to travel to Portugal to participate in the Graduation week and stay for the duration of the program.
5. There may be additional steps, depending on the country in which the student decides to reside in his/her fourth semester during the preparation of his/her thesis.

*This process is the simplest of the possible scenarios foreseen by the four universities, but it may vary depending on the nationality of the student and even if there are changes in the different national regulations of each country, in this case, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, and Portugal.