On 13 October ACA hosted its 54th Policy Seminar, which involved more than 20 speakers from different higher education institutions, national agencies and the European Commission. 

The seminar’s telling theme was ‘Quality in international university partnerships – newlyweds, happily married, in marital counselling or on the verge of divorce’. Presentations and panel discussions revolved around the current state and future of strategic partnerships, the quality of joint study programmes and how to research new collaborations. 

The audience was “warmed-up” by exquisite keynote presentations by Markus Laitinen and Fiona Hunter, which paved the way to lively discussions in the roundtable on strategic partnerships as well as in parallel sessions on research collaboration, multilateral partnerships, enhancing quality of joint programmes and the ways to evaluate collaborations. The closing speech by Neil Kemp summed up the discussions during the day and brought in a few new perspectives to the metaphor in the title – love, marriage and beyond? 

ACA’s seminar provided a platform for a fruitful and critical discussion on the main trends in international partnership development within European higher education, with a particular focus on the role of quality-related considerations. We would like to thank all the speakers and participants for their contributions in making the event as enriching as it was.