Conference Agenda

This abstract reflects on the experience of the Arqus Innovation Fund project “Driving Social Innovation with AI-Powered Service Learning”, developed collaboratively by University of Minho, University of Granada, University of Padua, University of Lyon I, and University of Vilnius within the Arqus European University Alliance.

The project emerged from a shared recognition that although Service-Learning has demonstrated strong potential to foster civic engagement, democratic participation, and social responsibility, its implementation across European higher education institutions often remains fragmented, dependent on individual faculty initiatives, and weakly embedded in institutional structures (Sugawara et al., 2023).

To address this challenge, the project designed a transnational training model aimed at supporting faculty members in integrating Service-Learning into their curricula through the use of Artificial Intelligence as a pedagogical support tool. The initiative included online preparatory sessions, collaborative exchanges among partner institutions, and an intensive in-person training programme hosted at University of Minho in May 2025.

During the training, participants explored institutional Service-Learning practices, worked with community-oriented sustainability challenges, and collaboratively designed AI-supported Service-Learning projects aligned with real societal needs and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative aimed not only to support pedagogical innovation but also to create conditions for long-term institutional adoption of Service-Learning practices. Research has shown that service-learning can strengthen students’ civic engagement orientations, social justice awareness, and long-term democratic participation (Saavedra et al., 2022; Lin et al., 2025).

Our reflection focuses on three key dimensions of institutionalisation:

- Faculty development: equipping educators with practical tools, training, and confidence to integrate Service-Learning into teaching practices;

- Cross-institutional collaboration: leveraging European alliances to share resources, models, and strategies across diverse institutional contexts;

- Sustainability and scalability: moving beyond isolated pilot initiatives toward long-term institutional frameworks capable of embedding civic and democratic learning into university structures.

We also reflect on persistent challenges, including differences in institutional cultures, resource allocation, varying levels of recognition for civic-engaged teaching, and the ethical implications of integrating AI into socially engaged pedagogies. Emerging discussions on AI-supported service-learning further highlight both the opportunities and ethical complexities of integrating AI into community-based learning environments (Sass, 2025).

This contribution argues that European university alliances can function as important laboratories for institutional experimentation, enabling universities to collectively develop more sustainable models of Service-Learning that strengthen democratic culture, civic engagement, and social responsibility in higher education.