Aurora partners are invited to the webinar series on Open Educational Resources starting December 14th. The series are meant to illustrate a strategic part of universities’ improvement in the sector of Open Education.
The OER group wants to sensibilize teaching staff and students in the Aurora network for Open Educational Resources. It aims to raise awareness within Aurora universities on the many possibilities that Open Educational Resources offer. OER stimulates collaboration between teachers by reusing and remixing open materials. Students can participate in developing new and open educational resources.
In the webinars, the motto “content is king” will be used to emphasize the importance of free access to content, benefits and conditions of the creation and provision of learning materials.
Grab this opportunity to learn more about Open Educational Resources in these four upcoming webinars:
14 December 2021
Introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER): benefits & licences & search engines
18 January 2022
OER-enabled Pedagogy for teaching and learning in the digital age
22 February 2022
Creation Processes: How to produce free content? How to produce reusable open content? How to re-mix different resources and how can OER be part of it?
15 March 2022
Best Practices: Scenarios from Aurora universities, how to address staff & teachers. How to make students co-creation and content owners.
The full program for the OER Nuggets to go webinar series can be found here.
To follow a webinar, click on the Zoom link below and uset he meeting ID and password:
Between November 15th and 18th, a UP delegation visited our partners at the University of Rovira i Virgili, to participate in the Aurora Autumn Biannual in Tarrgona, Spain. The biannual was a great success and an excellent opportunity to meet in person and strengthen the ties with all of our partners.
The Biannual combined plenary sessions with intensive workgroup and management meetings. The absolute highlight of the event was the signing of the Multilateral Aurora Mobility Agreement. This agreement opens up many new mobility possibilities for both students and staff, between all Aurora Universities.
The momentous Multilateral Aurora Mobility Agreement was signed by UP Rector Martin Prochazka.
During the Biannual, the Aurora top-management met twice, during the Aurora Presidents’ Strategic session and the Aurora Council meeting. During these meetings, the Presidents and Institutional Coordinators of all Aurora institutions came together to discuss the progress so far, as well as the next steps and the road ahead. The ICs also met on Monday the 15th in preparation for the two Aurora top-management meetings on the following days.
The plenary sessions covered topics such as the inclusion of soft skills and SDG-perspective in the teaching of Aurora Universities through the use of the Aurora Competence Framework, as well as approaches and opportunities to internationalization of the curriculum. Featured were several highlevel debates, with prominent keynote speakers such as Xavier Prats Monné, the former Director-General for Education and Culture of the European Comission.
The voice of students was given center stage during the event. In the weekend before the start of the biannual,
The agreement was signed by dignitaries of all Aurora Universities.
students for all Aurora Universities gathered in Tarragona early to participate in the Aurora Student’s Design Thinking Jam, and give their input on what the Aurora Universities can do to facilitate meaningful international experiences for their students.
The outcomes of this session, ranging from the need for Aurora Student Events to mental health support and tackling issues with inclusivity were presented to the Aurora community during the biannual by the students themselves. Palacky University was excellently represented by four its students from four different faculties: Hanus Patera (FF), Dominik Vorac (PdF), Serge Nengali (PF), and Dominik Hlubek (PrF).
On the 18th of November, a dedicated Kick-off for the Aurora Research & Innovation program took place. During the kick-off the leaders of the various Aurora RI activities got together to present their activities and the way forward, identifying the where and how to collaborate most efficiently.
A full overview of the presented materials, as well as photos and videos taken at the event can be found below:
A part of the UP delegation.The UP delegation, together with the University of Innsbruck‘s delegation.The Aurora Research & Innovation activity leaders.
On Wednesday the 8th of December, Kees Kouwenaar will visit Palacky University Olomouc to provide a staff training session on the Aurora Competence Framework. During this comprehensive session for educators, you will learn more about how to include soft skills in your courses and programs.
Equipping students not only with the subject knowledge and skills but also with the proficiencies and mindsets to address societal challenges is one of the key objectives of Aurora’s Educational programme – Learning for Societal Impact.
The Aurora Competences Training Workshop will show teaching staff how to easily integrate general academic and personal competences into the learning outcomes of their existing courses and modules. The Workshop will also familiarise the teaching staff of the Aurora universities and their associate partner universities with the intersection of these with the role of the SDG perspective in their teaching.
This training session is organized by the Aurora Capacity Delevopment Support (CDS) Team, as one of their planned CDS-Awareness Raising Events, which play a central role in strengthening the capacity of the Aurora associate partner universities in key innovative domains of internationalization and social engagement. As such, the session is open to our associate partners as well as local UP teachers.
NB: Due to Covid 19 measures, we are able to host only 20 people. This will impact the number of selected applicants for the in-person training. In the selection, we will prioritise Aurora associate partner universities. Face-to-face training will be followed by a networking day for the associate partner participants on 09/12/2021.
Learner Analytics is a developing area for universities – but it is not always clear what is meant by the term. This session will cover key aspects such as skills needed, technology required, the data that may be used, as well as practical implementation and ethical issues.
The purpose of this event is to give those working in a university environment an understanding of the main aspects, challenges and benefits of a Learner Analytics project. It will also aim to facilitate networking between those interested in this area.
Please send an expression of interest to Lucy Mellor at: L.Mellor@uea.ac.uk to allow us to organise the practical part of the session and to communicate with participants before the event. Deadline for registration is 16:00 GMT on Friday 19th November 2021 and participation is free of charge.
Join the session through this Teams-link on Thursday 25th of November 2021, 14:00-16:00 GMT (15:00 – 17:00 Central European Time).
There are many competing diagnoses and characterisations of contemporary societies: as capitalist, open, postmodern, transnational or polarised and divided. This Spring School aims to question such simplistic diagnoses and to analyse which, partly competing, partly complementary, ideas and hypotheses are hidden behind these labels. We want to understand which positionings and power relations are expressed in the various characterisations of contemporary societies and, based on this, question what is supposed to hold contemporary societies together – and whether it needs to be held together at all. In three panels we aim to investigate specifically how the humanistic ideals of public spirit and community, openness, and tolerance shape and are being shaped, striven for, as well as negotiated and contested by contemporary society. In addition, this Spring School features a performative societal laboratory, where we aim to generate a different, embodied and performative type of knowledge about the themes of the Spring School.
The Spring School will take place in Duisburg, Germany in March 28th to April 1st 2022 and offers the opportunity to discuss recent advances in related research areas with highly regarded scholars in and invites students to present their related research agenda or outputs in three different and topically structured panels. Also we invite all participants to participate in an artistic performance with the aim to facilitate and foster reflection through collective action. The Spring School features panels on “Sense of Community in Transnational Societies,” “Cosmopolitanism and the post-developmental critique of open societies,” and “Politics of identity and cultures of (in-)tolerance.”
Registration requirements:
Please submit a brief CV (max. 1 page), an abstract on your doctoral research (max. 500 words), a motivation for your application (max. 250 words), an indication of preference of panel workshops (please indicate your priorities) and an indication of choice for the performative-participatory laboratory. The deadline for submissions is 10th of January 2022. Cost of registration is €400, including tuition, accommodation and meals.
Taking place on the 6th and 7th of December at the University of Naples, Federico II, in this two-day hackathon we invite you to co-create conceptual solutions for rethinking the Mediterranean food economy, departing from the concept of the Mediterranean diet.
Man-made climate change, species extinction and other environmental factors linked to the condition of the Anthropocene will radically alter the conditions for food production and consumption in the coming decades. Indeed, the effects of these developments are already visible as farmers all over the world are faced with rising insecurity and unpredictability that derive from new weather, temperature and humidity patterns. At the same time, the food economy is changing: there is a new inflow of highly skilled, university-educated neo-rurals who bring with them novel conceptions of entrepreneurship and management; digital technologies- from drones and precision agriculture, via blockchains, down to ‘simple’ e-commerce sites- empower food production and distribution in new ways; and there is a re-discovery of ‘traditional’ foods and production techniques along with a novel appreciation of forgotten tastes and aesthetics.
How to empower alternative forms of production and consumption that are both productive and resilient? How will the Mediterranean diet itself change (through, for example, the introduction of formerly ‘tropical’ produce, like mangoes and avocados, that now grow in Southern Italy)? How to guarantee worker rights and ensure proper remuneration in a rural economy marked by a powerful role of informal economic networks as well as persisting structural racism? Further information can be found here.
Registration process and requirements: Applicants must send a one-page CV to afi.soedarsono@societing by 30 November 2021. Participation in the Hackathon is free of charge.
On October 18th, the Aurora Office of the Palacky University in Olomouc organized an Open Day event for the University faculties. Rector Martin Prochazka opened the event and welcomed the participants, reminding us all how significant it is to acknowledge the event being the first larger physical gathering after the COVID phase at our University, and also a first physical gathering for Aurora participants and the interested parties since the start of the Aurora European Universities Alliance programme, in November 2020.
Rector further emphasized how UP together with 8 other European universities in Aurora has pledged to transform higher education by modernizing our institutions to meet the societal challenges, and how proud he is to continue this important work of our University in the Alliance of European Universities, building a strong European future together.
Under his leadership, we will work to strengthen UP’s position within the Aurora as well as to use this strategic partnership and international cooperation to advance the results and quality of our university. As he invited for joint collaboration he also stated that “To achieve the best results, we need to work together. We will make sure that Aurora benefits faculties and provides the best services and resources to the academic community and our students.”
After the opening remarks by the UP Rector, Selma Porobic, the Aurora Institutional Coordinator at UP, provided a full overview of the European Universities Initiative and its positioning in the policy context of European higher education. She introduced the Aurora Alliance and achievements of the collaboration after the current 1-year progress reporting.
She pointed to a noteworthy increase in strategic and cross-regional EU partnerships addressing the widespread trans-national issues, like climate change, reduction of poverty, social injustice and inequalities, and the new technologies that are rapidly changing our work conditions and everyday lives. [1] In the EU’s higher education sector, the most significant has indeed been the strategic partnerships scheme, launched by European Commission (EC) as European Universities Initiative, under the Erasmus Plus Framework Programme.
It is considered as one of the leading initiatives of the EU’s ambitions to build a European Education Area by supporting the creation of universities of the future, promoting European values and identity, and revolutionizing the quality and competitiveness of European higher education.[2] After two calls only, already 41 university alliances are formed, joining together 279 higher education institutions in Europe and its neighboring countries.[3]
Dr. Porobic also introduced the work of Aurora Alliance and the joint management and governance model with impressive results, and a record of growing academic collaboration among academics of 9 universities. Furthermore, she introduced the new leadership model introduced at UP as of October, which places the Aurora programme under the Vice-rector for Strategy and provides important Strategic coordination of the work and results. She also introduced the Aurora Office at UP with services for the faculties.
In the following panel ‘European Universities and UP – Strategy and Future’ the Strategic management of the Aurora programme at UP was presented in detail by Vice-rector for Strategy Michal Malacka, stressing the embedding of Aurora programme deliverables into the existent governance structures supporting the realization of the UP Strategic goals 2021-2027. Dr. Malacka moderated the panel in which Vicerectors Education, Vit Zouhar, Communication, and Student Affairs, Vit Prochazka, and IT, evaluation and Sustainability, Tomas Opatrny all presented their work packages (WP3,4,5) and alignment with UP strategic goals in their respective sectors.
The next panel ‘What we do in Aurora’ consisted of the UP Activity leaders, Marie Jadrnickova, Marie Rakova, Tereza Kalouskova, Niels Hexspoor, promoting the concrete results in the International traineeships, Research Collaboration, Sustainable Campus, and the Capacity Development Support programme. Introduction to Aurora student schemes, ambassadors and champions, was also part of this panel.
In the afternoon, the panel Education and Mobility in Aurora, focused on the four pilot domain areas: Climate and Environmental Sustainability, Health and Wellbeing, Digital Society and Global Citizenships, Culture: Identity and diversity. Aurora partners are testing the educational collaboration in these and the panel representatives from four different UP faculties (Science faculty, arts faculty, Education Faculty and Health sciences) presented the results of this work so far with the current offers of joint lecture series, courses and upcoming joint degree programmes to the audience. At the same time the developing UP Aurora mobility schemes for students and staff were introduced, along with the Multilateral Aurora Mobility Agreement (to be signed during the Aurora Biannual in November) that will enable the increase of mobility exchanges across the 9 university partners.
The event was finalized with Open Questions and Answers, with the UP aurora office. Next on the agenda are separate Faculty visits and Aurora open day for students in spring 2022.
The day after on October 19th the Aurora project team had a long-time promised Teambuilding Event at Chateau Lednice.
The Co-creation Training Workshop which will be held on February 3rd to 5th, 2022 at the Athena Institute, Vrije University Amsterdam (VUA), the Netherlands, will provide a platform for Co-creation experts, practitioners, interested researchers and educators, Ph.D. students, and community partners to discuss and share knowledge and experiences on co-creation practices aimed towards connecting science and society. The main aims of the event are as follows:
Facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences on co-creation (best practices, pitfalls, innovations)
Connect co-creation experts, practitioners, students, and community partners from around the world
Build an engaged community of co-creation practitioners
Foster co-creation practices in research and education within and beyond the AURORA alliance
Do you want to get more out of your Master‘s program and participate in real-life experiences with pioneering communities? Do you want to be better prepared for your career after graduation? Do you want to start building a professional network and do you want to stand out from your peers? But do you also want to start contributing to societal impact before you even graduate? Do you want to cross the boundaries of your discipline and the walls of the university? Do you want to do creative and action-oriented research with an international group of students? Are you interested in doing your Master’s research, thesis or internship on any topic related to digitalization, digital inclusion or climate adaptation in the city? The Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning Course (iCSL) welcomes master students from any disciplinary background and university across the world to engage in inter-and transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation.
HOW TO JOIN? Participating in iCSL awards you credits that can be added to your master’s diploma or you can get a separate certificate. Completion of the first course awards 3 ECTS, and the second 6 ECTS. For more information and sign-up, visit vu.nl/icsl or contact: Eduardo Urias eduardo.munizpereiraurias@vu.nl
ICSL COURSE 1: DEFINING CHALLENGES Period 2 (nov-dec): Tuesdays 17.30-19.00
The first course prepares you to identify and define complex challenges together with communities, in theory and practice. In order to integrate the perspectives of different actors, you conduct interviews and ultimately bring relevant organizations, people, and businesses together at a big event. The course builds up to this dialogue event at which you facilitate the group discussion with participants.
ICSL COURSE 2: ADDRESSING CHALLENGES Semester 2
In the second iCSL course you address identified challenges, broadly as well as in-depth. Each member of the cross-disciplinary team tackles one aspect of the larger challenge within their own research project. This allows for in-depth application and development of your own disciplinary knowledge and methods. Throughout the process, you meet periodically with your cross-disciplinary team to integrate the insights from all projects, and consider the wider implications for the broad societal issue. By the end of the project, you collectively deliver an interdisciplinary report and present the project results during a Dialogue Event.
We may not have had the opportunity to visit all ten of the other universities, nor indeed those countries, but in the five years since Aurora began, how well do we really know our Aurora partners?
We’re all research-intensive with an international outlook, collectively supporting our students to become global entrepreneurs. But could you list the home country of each partner? Its academic strengths? Its research collaborations?
The Borderless Learning: Recognition and Mobility Group (WP3.3.1) is hosting a week-long series of webinars from November 2nd to 5th, aiming to answer questions from the very basic level – why would a student choose to study there – from its campus and location, to its courses, to its inclusive community. Each Aurora university will take just 60 minutes, all following a similar structure and format, to showcase itself to other Aurora universities.
Whether you’re a student, an administrative adviser or coordinator of placements, or an academic looking to strengthen your European partnerships; tune in (or watch the recordings) to find out more. You could just turn out to be learning about your next destination.
Get To Know Your Aurora University Study Abroad Partner Destinations – A Webinar Series for students and staff
Are you on a study abroad pathway? Interested in studying a short course abroad? Keen to experience living and learning in another part of Europe? Or helping to advise those that are? Join as many of these eleven webinars as you like! All will be live streamed and recorded for follow-up access.
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