This Research to Practice Full Paper focuses on the European Universities initiative, which has launched the creation of European University networks to develop the European education sector and to enhance institutional capabilities for tackling grand societal challenges. We critically discuss the rationale and goals for establishing such alliances, focusing on the example of the EuroTeQ Engineering University. How can the formation of university alliances create learning networks and, in this way, increase moral reflexivity? For this purpose, we will consider the role of universities of technology in the 21 st Century and the role that university alliances as learning networks can play to fulfil this role.