Students

Elevate your conversations about science with our Science Communication Training at AFO!

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 11. 3. 2024. Posted in Students.

During AFO, you are invited to two enganging sessions on science communication! Join us at Fort Science, as Anna Aris and Sem Barendse of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam lead help you improve your science communication skills!

The first of these sessions, The Art of Dialogue: Improve Your Communication and Facilitation Skills, will take place on 23 April 2024 from13:00 to17:00. It will allow you to discover the openness and humility of a dialogue attitude. With the help of playful improvisation and theatre techniques, you develop dialogue skills to enhance your conversations about science. This includes active listening, perspective taking and co-creating new ideas. The first step is to learn how to participate in meaningful conversations. The next step: design and facilitate dialogue yourself!

On the 24th of April, from 9:00 to12:00, join us for the second session: Science Communication Under Pressure: Scientists’ Survival Guide for the Public Arena. Here, we will focuss on what happens when you enter the public arena as a scientist and how to deal with value-driven discussions, strong reactions, or distrust. In this workshop, we will explore the possibility of dialogue to engage in meaningful conversations authentically and effectively.

These Trainings are intended for PhD and MSc students, as well as academics and researchers.

This event is organised in the framework of the Aurora Research & Innovation for Societal Impact project (Aurora RI) and its Citizen Science thematic module in cooperation with Fortress Science Olomouc and Academia Film Olomouc.

Call for Incentive Research Collaboration

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 26. 2. 2024. Posted in Academics, Featured, Students.

To foster tangible scientific and academic collaboration, this call aims to promote cooperation between researchers, and create new or consolidate existing scientific relationships. Its vision is to build robust scientific communities among the Aurora universities and raise awareness about Aurora on a broader academic level. This call will be repeated on an annual basis for at least four years and supports three key actions:

Incentive and Collaborative Research Projects

This action supports concrete exploratory research activities by research teams with single or multiple disciplines that put forward the complementarity of competences and approaches.

Thematic Summer Schools

This action supports the organisation of thematic summer schools focused on disciplinary training for early-stage researchers and serves as opportunities for career development, knowledge sharing, and network/community-building.

Short-term Research Secondments for Early-stage Researchers

This action supports short-term mobility in a research laboratory or unit of an Aurora 2030 full-member university.

Submission Process

To submit a proposal for the three key actions, please read the Call for Incentive Research Collaboration and fill out the respective forms listed below:

Once completed, please e-mail the application to aurora@u-pec.fr with the subject: Submission to Aurora Research 2024 Call_(Name of Principal Investigator)_(University of Principal Investigator). File name: Proposal KA (1,2, or 3)_Name (Principal Investigator)-University (of Principal Investigator)_(project acronym).

The deadline for the submission of proposals is 12 p.m. (CET) on April 30, 2024.

Aurora Student Schemes 2023/2024

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 20. 11. 2023. Posted in Students.

Do you want to broaden your horizons? Are you looking to meet students from all over Europe and develop your personal Schemes?

In that case the Aurora Student Ambassador or Students Champion programme is perfect for you.

Sign up before December 31st and participate in the activities stretching from January to June 2024.

Lucky participants will be invited to participate in the Aurora Student Conference in Tarragona, Spain in February.

1. Student Ambassador

If you want to be a part of an international community of students, the role of Aurora Student Ambassador will be perfect for you.

In this role, you will be given the opportunity to take part in a variety of online and in-person events, together with students from across all Aurora Universities.

You will be offered several international workshops that will boost you personal and professional development.

Your journey as Aurora Ambassador will start at the Aurora Student Conference, where you will learn everything about Aurora, and meet peers from across the world.

2. Student Champion

This role is created specifically for students that want to go the extra mile. Building on what your learned during the Aurora Student Conference, you will directly work on the key Aurora topics, in addition to the joint activities provided to Aurora Student Ambassadors

Students that amass at least 15 hours of combined participation in the joint program and the working groups will be given the certificate of Aurora Student Champion.

Register

https://forms.office.com/e/UTnFRgMkpK

Looking back at the Aurora Fall Biannual 2023

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 27. 10. 2023. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events, Featured, Students.

Last month, Palacký University Olomouc hosted the Aurora Fall Biannual 2023 on October 17th and 18th for in Olomouc, Czechia. The event brought together over 200 participants hailing from 18 universities from within the Aurora community and beyond.

Watch the Aurora Fall Biannual aftermovie

The Aurora Fall Biannual focused on taking stock of Aurora’s achievements as part of the European Universities initiative.

These European developments took center stage in the plenary sessions and panels:

Aurora Pilot Phase: Aurora Model Alliance?
The impact and role of European Universities on future of Higher Education in Europe
Alliance Exchange – Balancing Education, Research Innovation and Social Responsibility
Toward student-centered European University Alliances

Aurora’s commitment to sustainability was also highlighted during the event, with an opening presentation and plenary session dedicated to Aurora’s work on making our community greener and more sustainable.

Collaboration within Aurora was further strengthened by the momentous singing of a Memorandum of understanding on the sharing of research infrastructure, as well as the signing of the second version of the Multilateral Aurora Mobility Agreement (MAMA).

Next to the retrospective of Aurora’s remarkable accomplishments, the Aurora community came together to look forward to the exciting prospects that lie ahead.Participants also engaged in thought-provoking Thematic sessions on prominent Aurora topics suchs as COIL, the Aurora Competence Framework, and Technology Transfer.

Want to relive the biannual or catch up on any sessions you missed? You can watch back the recordings of the plenary sessions below:

🎥 17/10/2023 – Day 1

🎥 18/10/2023 – Day 2

You can find a selection of photos below, the full photo gallery of the biannual can be downloaded here.

Call for Papers: Scholarly Book on Suburban Studies

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 6. 10. 2023. Posted in Students.

We invite proposals for a forthcoming scholarly book on suburban studies. This interdisciplinary book aims to explore the complex, diverse, and dynamic nature of suburbs, their histories, and their futures. The book will seek to engage with a wide range of topics and themes related to sub/urban spaces, cultures, politics, and environments.

Call for Papers: Scholarly Book on Suburban Studies

We welcome proposals from scholars across various disciplines, including but not limited to literature, sociology, history, anthropology, urban studies, geography, geoinformatics, urban planning, environmental studies, and cultural studies. We are interested in contributions that critically examine suburbs as spaces of social, economic, and political inequality and exclusion, as well as spaces of creativity, innovation, and resistance. We encourage authors to engage with debates and discussions around issues such as suburbanization, gentrification, racial and ethnic segregation, environmental sustainability, and suburban history, cultures, and identities.

Proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

The literary reflection of suburban culture
The histories and genealogies of suburbs
The social and cultural practices of suburban life
The politics and governance of suburban spaces
The environmental impacts of suburbanization
The racial and ethnic dynamics of suburbanization
The cultural production and consumption of suburban spaces
The relationship between suburbs and the urban and rural landscapes
The future of suburban spaces and their potential transformations

We welcome proposals for individual chapters. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words along with a short biography (no more than 250 words) and contact information. The submission deadline for chapter abstract is October 31st, 2023. Accepted proposals will be notified by December 31st, 2023. Full chapters will be due on July 30th, 2024.
Please send your proposals to pavlina.flajsarova@upol.cz. If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Editorial board:

Pavlína Flajšarová Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic,
Jiří Flajšar, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Vít Voženílek, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Florian Freitag, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Becky Nicolaides, San Diego State University, San Diego, USA
Andrew Wiese, San Diego State University, San Diego, USA
Mauricette Fournier, Université Clermont Auvergne, France

The book is co-financed by the Erasmus+ programme under the project Urbanism and Suburbanization in the EU Countries and Abroad: Reflection in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts (2021-1-CZ01-KA220-HED-000023281).

Aurora’s European University programme secured continued funding

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 10. 7. 2023. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Featured, Students.

Aurora’s European University programme secured continued funding

Palacký University Olomouc is delighted to announce that the Aurora European University programme has secured a second round of funding under the 2023 European Universities Initiative Call by the European Commission. This ensures that Aurora can deepen its existing cooperation and continue its mission in higher education transformation.

Michal Malacka, Vice-rector for strategy and external relations commented that: “Aurora’s successful continuation to the next phase is a great achievement of the entire Aurora team and community. It is also a great reward to a hard-working Aurora team at UP, and we are excited to continue building our European University with 8 excellent strategic partners. For UP, Aurora ensures important partaking in the European higher education developments.”

The upcoming Aurora 2030 consortium, led by the University of Iceland, has been granted funding for a four-year period. This programme, which received 90/100 evaluative points from the Commission, builds on the significant progress made during the 2020-2023 pilot phase. Aurora President Jon Atli Benediktsson joyously shares:

“I am delighted that Aurora 2030 has been awarded a four-year continuation grant by the European Commission. This is a strong vote of confidence in Aurora’s mission to equip students with the skills and mindsets needed to address societal challenges. This new grant will allow us to continue working closely with our partners across Europe and beyond.”

The new programme will feature both a continuation of existing, as well as completely new Aurora activities. UP has significantly increased the role it will play in this new programme, with UP Aurora Institutional Coordinator, Selma Porobic commenting:

“I am very pleased to announce that UP has increased its leadership in a number of activities in the next Aurora programme, including Capacity Building and Community Engagement Work focusing on CEE countries and Ukraine, Engaging Regional Ecosystems and Stakeholders, Aurora Sustainable Campus, Aurora Student Community, and overall Sustainability of Aliance 2030+. We have also secured co-leadership in Education for Sustainable Devlopment, Innovative pedagogies, Academic collaboration, Social entrepreneurship and Innovation, Communication and dissemination, as well as Student services.”

More information on Aurora’s goals and priorities for this renewed commitment can be found here.

The Czech National Agency for international education, Dům zahraniční spolupráce, was also happy to congratulate UP being among the select Czech universities awarded continued support by the commission. They provided an overview of continuing and newly funded European University Alliances with Czech members here.

About Aurora
The Aurora 2030 consortium comprises the University of Iceland (UIce), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), University of Innsbruck (UIBK), University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Palacký University Olomouc (UP), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Université Paris Est Creteil (UPEC), and the University of Napoli Federico II (UNINA) as well as seven associated academic and non-academic partners including University of East Anglia (UEA), South-West University “Neofit Rilski” (SWUNR), Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (UPJSK), the University of Tetova (UT), Kharkiv National University, European Forum Alpbach, Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence (CIMEA) who together span 13 countries.

Aurora Student Council

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 18. 6. 2023. Posted in Students.

Aurora Student Council

The Aurora Student Council is made up of representatives from across the Aurora Universities, working to support and help advise the Aurora universities’ senior management to help drive its collective ambitions forward. Each university is represented by two students. As a council, the ASC is committed to the social impact of our activities, with a common interest in the SDGs, engaging our student communities in everything we do. You can read more about the the Aurora Student Council here.

The Aurora Student Council is headed by an elected president. The current president of the Aurora Student Council is Hanuš Patera (Hanus.patera@gmail.com). The student council also has a Vice-president, a secretary and a communications officers. All these roles are fulfilled by members of the ASC, and are elected internally on a yearly basis.

Palacký University Olomouc is represented by two students. Our current Aurora Student Council Participants are:

Hanuš Patera – ASC President
Lucie Baďurová – ASC Communications Officer

You can follow the Aurora Student Council on Intagram @aurorastudentcouncil.

Interested in becoming one of Palacky University’s Aurora Representatives, reach out to Niels Hexspoor for more information.

Aurora Student Ambassador Program

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 18. 6. 2023. Posted in Students.

Aurora Student Ambassador Program

Do you want to broaden your horizons? Are you looking to meet students from all over Europe and develop your personal and professional competences? In that case the Aurora Student Ambassador programme is perfect for you.

The Aurora Student Ambassador programme is the easiest way for you to engage with the Aurora project. At the center of the activities are a series of online and in-person workshops that will focus on developing your professional skills and deepening your understanding of Aurora and its topics! Some of the work-shop topics include:

Intercultural Competences
Presenting
Environmental Sustainability
Student Leadership
Social Media Training

Being an Aurora student Ambassador is also a great way to meet students with similar interests, both in Olomouc and abroad!

Task Team Participation

To get the most out of your experience as an Aurora Student Ambassador, we recommend you sign up to join an Aurora Task team. You will join a working group of up international professionals, as well as other students, to give your opinion and contribute to the work done.

If you are able to dedicate between 12-40 hours, and want to develop skills, work in a professional network you should join an Aurora Task Team, as part of your Student Ambassador Experience! This will allow you to help build and directly contribute to Aurora.

For more information on the possibilities for UP Students within Aurora, please contact Niels Hexspoor (niels.hexspoor@upol.cz).

The Aurora Student Conference brought together the Aurora Student Community

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 16. 6. 2023. Posted in Academics, Students.

We are thrilled to share the highlights of the Aurora Student Conference, organized by Palacky University Olomouc on the 26th of May. The conference brought together the diverse layers of Aurora Student representation and was organized to foster connections, building a strong sense of community among students.

Held in conjunction with the Aurora Creative Writing Workshop, the Aurora Student Conference provided a unique opportunity for participants to engage with fellow Aurora students, from across various programs. This integration added an exciting dimension to the conference, allowing students to come together and forge new friendships.

With a total of 32 participants from nine different universities, the Aurora Student Conference was a melting pot of enthusiastic individuals. The group comprised members of the Aurora Student Council, dedicated Student Ambassadors and Champions, as well as members of the general student body.

What made this conference truly special was the pre-existing connections that many of the students had formed through previous Aurora opportunities, such as the Student Schemes, Biannuals, and other events organized across the alliance. These established bonds served as a strong foundation, enhancing the value of the event by deepening connections and fostering a genuine sense of belonging within the Aurora community.

Student mental health took center stage during the conference. Hanus Patera and Lucie Badurova, Student Council representatives for Palacky University Olomouc, led a compelling peer-learning workshop on mental health and mindfulness. Their insightful and practical approach to the topic truly resonated with the attendees. In addition, Niels Hexspoor facilitated an workshop on intercultural communication and competences, empowering students to reflect on and develop their intercultural skills.

Furthermore, the Aurora Student Conference provided a platform for an in-person meeting of the Aurora Student Council. While the council members convened, the session was also open to students who were not part of the council, promoting inclusivity and amplifying the diverse voices within Aurora.

As the conference drew to a close, participants were invited to a joint dinner. It was a delightful conclusion to an eventful and rewarding gathering.Stay tuned for more exciting events and opportunities to engage with fellow Aurora students as we continue to grow our Aurora Student Community.

Report – Aurora Student Conference