Author: Niels Hexspoor

On May 20 – 21st, the tenth Aurora Biannual took place, where Aurora presidents, students and staff met to learn from and with each other.

The first day began with an opening plenary focusing on the future of academic collaboration between British and other European universities following Brexit. Ms Adrienn Kiraly, Head of the Cabinet to Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Education, Culture and Youth, touched upon our collaborations with universities and said “Your alliance is already well placed to be a role model for other higher education institutions in Europe and beyond: Your association with three other higher education institutions in Bulgaria, Slovakia and North Macedonia as well as your commitment to developing a capacity development support programme for more than 30 Universities from Central Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries testify for this.” She also highlighted our collaborations with our students by saying: “I am very happy to see that you have put in place the Aurora Student Champions Scheme in order to ensure student representation in each of your activities.”

During the plenary, Paul Boyle (Vice-Chancellor Swansea University and EUA Vice-President) outlined the 7 key points UK universities must address in order to advance in academic collaborations. One of these points is the need for a European wide funding system open to the world. He mentions that universities in the UK feel fortunate to be part of Horizon EU and participate in the vast majority of that scheme. However, there are many other countries from which they could gain value collaborating too. Karine Samuel (Vice President for International Affairs of Université Grenoble Alpes) stressed the importance of international collaboration and how the Aurora collaboration was especially useful in the pandemic by exchanging experiences and best practices with other Aurora universities. Ms Emily Reise from the University of Iceland added a students’ voice and emphasized on the accessibility and mobility of students and sees the advantage of short term mobility experiences for students.

After lively parallel session presentations and dynamic conversations, we entered the virtual reception building where Jón Atli Benediktsson (Aurora Network President and Rector of University of Iceland) welcomed the Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland, Lilja Alfredsdottir. Ms Alfredsdottir believes that the strength of Iceland lies in its international collaborations and that these collaborating networks have ensured that Icelandic research is truly global and ambitious. She says: “No single institution can tackle world challenges on its own but collaboration brings a strength that can be greater than the sum of its parts. With that in mind, the European Commission has focused its recent efforts in higher education on forming strong European University networks capable of producing internationally competent European students, European research, and European solutions”. Jón Atli introduced Ms Anne-May Janssen who will take over from Kees Kouwenaar as Secretary-General of Aurora from July 25th of this year. The reception also welcomed a comedy sketch by comedian Ari Eldjarn. Ari enthused the public with his charismatic interpretations of the many European cultures.

The second day continued with open parallel dissemination sessions and a wrap up of the reports and reflections. President of the Alliance Board Mirjam van Praag shared the accomplishments and challenges of the last 6 months. Among the achievements are the many courses that have been identified to be Aurorarized, a 2-year master program, an international traineeship program, a framework for mobility grant allocation, the 32 students engaged in the Aurora Student Champion Scheme and 15 student ambassadors. Next to accomplishments, Ms van Praag also shared a key concern about the involvement of academics in Aurora and integrating Aurorarized course into existing degree programs. A full overview of the achievements can be found here.

In total, 25 of Aurora’s active working groups and task teams met during the Biannual, and 7 dissemination sessions informed a wider Aurora audience on aspects of the Aurora programme of activities.

In the wrap-up, it was announced that it is the last term of Callum Perry, initiator of the Aurora Student Champions Scheme and that his successor will be elected in the following months. And lastly, Maria José Figueras Salvat, Rector of Universitat Rovira i Virgili, announced that the fall biannual 2021 will physically be organized in Tarragona.

On the 28th of June, the Health and Wellbeing Pilot Domain is organizing a summer meeting with a duo purpose to show education and research activities in the Health and Wellbeing pilot domain. The aim is to pave the way for the birth of a Health and wellbeing community within Aurora, with collaborations among the AURORA partners in the field of Education and Research. Therefore, the focus of the meeting is to present the activities in the field of Health and Wellbeing and to exchange ideas on current and future activities.

Programme

10.00 – 10.05 am Welcome and Introduction

10.05-10.20 am  Presentation of a map of the Health and Wellbeing education within the Aurora universities

10.20 -11.00 am Education Session

Participants (one or two for each university) presents the teaching activities within the Health and wellbeing domain. Each presenter should provide information on:

• • Initiatives opened or to be opened to all aurora students
  • Existing, planned or even ideas for new activities in collaboration with other Aurora partners

11.00-11.15 am  Discussion

11.15-12.00 am Research Session

Each university presents their research interests by answering the following questions

• • what are the main areas of research of my University
  • Research infrastructures that could be shared among Aurora Universities (WP 4.2)
  • How being part of the Aurora Network could bring benefits to your research activities

Participants can register at the following link

On June 17^th, the Aurora Service Learning Toolbox will be launched during the international learning lab conference, and will take place from 15:30 to 18:00 CEST.

The toolbox will provide relevant tools and resources to interested teachers and students interested in learing more about Service Learning.

These tools will further strengthen existing Service Learning courses and give the teachers inspiration on transforming an existing course by adding a service learning perspective. The event is open for students, teachers and experts from the Aurora universities and other national/international guest Universities for a broader discourse on service learning.

The event will include talks from international Service Learning experts:

• Prof. Robert Bringle (Professor Emeritus, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, USA),
• Prof. Wolfgang Stark (Professor Emeritus, Universität Duisburg Essen, Germany),
• Prof. Marjolein Zweekhorst (Professor, Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam).

The event will also include presentations of students from Interdisciplinary Service Learning (iCSL2) – an “Aurorised” course open to Master students from any discipline/program across Aurora universities.

Click here for more information and access to the zoom meeting ID and password.

More information regarding the Aurora Service Learning Toolbox will be added soon.