Aurora European University Alliance
The Aurora vision of matching academic excellence with societal relevance formed the foundation of the Aurora European University Alliance. Selected under the second European Universities Initiative call launched by the European Commission in 2020, the project brought together Aurora partner universities to build a new model of transnational collaboration in higher education. Together, we focused on maximising the societal impact of research, strengthening diversity and inclusion, and empowering students as drivers of innovation in teaching and learning. This first phase laid the foundations for a connected, inclusive and impact-driven european university, paving the way for the continued development of the alliance through the Aurora 2030 programme.
WP1 Management & Leadership Work Package 1 (WP1) ensures robust governance and effective management of the Aurora Alliance. It coordinates the Alliance’s governing bodies, communications, and monitoring, and safeguards the effective, efficient, and legitimate allocation and accounting of resources.
WP1 is responsible for governance, internal and external communications, progress monitoring, financial management, and mitigating risks that could jeopardize the achievement of Alliance objectives.
Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Co-lead: Aurora Central Office
Task 1.1 Governance
This task offers robust governance and effective management. Its objective is to ensure all Aurora governance and management bodies are operational and supported, and that all decision and conflict resolution mechanisms are in place.
Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Task 1.2 Communications
This task ensures reciprocal information suited to the implementation of the Aurora Alliance programme. Its objective is effective communication about progress and results with internal and external stakeholders, and fine-tuned antennae to pick up relevant internal and external signals of problems that need to be addressed.
Lead: Aurora Central Office
Task 1.3 Monitoring
This task tracks progress and provides feedback on tasks and deliverables. Its objective is to keep track of and ensure adequate feedback on the execution of tasks and the achievement of deliverables, ensuring the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of Aurora’s activities, and adjusting activities where needed.
Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Task 1.4 Financial Management
This task ensures effective, efficient, and legitimate allocation and accounting of resources. Its objective is transparent, effective, and legitimate allocation of resources, and transparent, effective, and legitimate accounting for that allocation.
Lead: Aurora Central Office
Task 1.5 Risk Management
This task mitigates risks that could jeopardize the achievement of Alliance objectives. Its objective is to mitigate risks and avoid risks jeopardizing the overall achievement of the Aurora Alliance proposal, ensuring all risks have been adequately addressed.
Lead: Aurora Central Office
Work Package 2 (WP2) established an integrated quality management system in which all work package teams, and all activity teams shared responsibility. It promoted a culture that enhances the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of task execution and oversaw the regular assessment of tasks, processes, and deliverables.
Lead: University of Iceland
Co-lead: University of Innsbruck
2.1 Quality System
This task established an integrated quality management system, in which all work package teams, and all activity teams share responsibility.
The targets for the three-year funding period included:
• Systems and processes were in place for the integral enhancement of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of task execution.
• Aurora Presidents and stakeholders had the tools to monitor and guide the Aurora Alliance.
2.2 Quality Culture
This task built a shared culture that built and promoted relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of task execution.
Key indicators focused on keeping internal stakeholders (e.g., students, staff) and external stakeholders aware of the objectives of the Aurora Alliance and sharing these. The aim was to ensure that all teams and all team members understand their role in quality management and were willing and able to play that role.
2.3 Internal Quality Evaluation
To ensure the regular assessment of the tasks, processes and deliverables, this task evaluated the quality of the internal deliverables of the Aurora Alliance, so that they reached their intended impact, were coherent with other activities, and were sustainable. Where appropriate, deliverables were embedded in the rules and procedures of the universities. Moreover, the deliverables are embraced by students, staff, and external stakeholders. Structural resource allocation was suited to maintain the deliverables and their use.
2.4 External Quality Monitoring
This task provided external reviews by the quality team and coordination with the external quality board. The objective was to have a critical external review and thus organise critical independent analysis and reflection.
2.5 Quality Enhancement
This task’s objective was to provide systematic quality improvement. The targets for the three-year funding period included the implementation of the recommendations of the quality team and the external quality board in order to enhance the overall quality of the program.
World Package 3 (WP3) included a series of objectives for the 3- year period including the equipment a diverse student population with the skills and mindset to make them social entrepreneurs and innovators, willing and able to tackle the major challenges of our societies. To achieve this, WP3 took the following actions:
• Make framework and test in domains.
• Create social transformation.
• Make borderless learning and test in domains.
• Equip teachers, also by an evidence based.
Lead: University of East Anglia
3.1 Aurora Competence Framework
This task developed and implemented the Aurora Competences Framework of general academic and personal competences with progressive descriptors, needed to ensure students become social entrepreneurs and innovators. It also improved and extended the use of Service Learning and International Internships as specific Aurora pedagogical methods contributing to skills and values development.
By the end of the three-year funding period:
- The ACF was defined and implemented in programs across the four domains at all partner institutions, reaching all new student cohorts in those programs.
- Alliance-wide roll-out was prepared through a standard Authorisation mechanism.
- Service Learning and International Internships were adopted in all four domains at all partner institutions, with wider roll-out prepared across all programs.
3.1.1 Aurora Competence Framework – Lead: Copenhagen Business School
3.1.2 Aurora International Internship Program – Lead: Palacký University Olomouc
3.1.3 Service-Learning Program – Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
3.2 Aurora Social Transformation
This task ensured that the student population reflects the talent in the communities we serve, without underrepresentation of any groups in our population. The targets included ensuring that all partners had set and achieved targets to reduce discrepancies between their student population and talent in society, while also improving success rates for groups of underperforming students.
Lead: University of East Anglia
3.3 Aurora Borderless Learning
This task aimed to create an Aurora Education Area recognized mobility for all.
The targets included:
• All students in the four domains have had a meaningful and fully recognised international experience before graduation.
• 50% of all students at Aurora partners have had a meaningful and fully recognised international experience before graduation.
• All students at all partners have access to a meaningful international experience with seamless recognition.
• 50% of all students acquire B2-level competence in a first foreign language; 30% acquire B1-level competence in a second foreign language.
• All Aurora students have access to one set of digital services aligned with the European Student Card and Europass. Aurora students can register through one Aurora course catalogue.
3.3.1 Aurora Borderless Learning – Lead: University of Innsbruck; Co-lead: University of East Anglia
3.3.2 Plurilingual Competence – Lead: University of Naples Federico II
3.3.3 IT Supported Student Services – Lead: Universitat Rovira i Virgili / University of Naples Federico II
3.3.4 Open Educational Resources – Lead: University of Innsbruck; Co-lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
3.4 Aurora Pilot Domains Coordination
The objective of this task included the testing and implementation of innovations in competences and mobility opportunities, as well as the SDG perspective, across programs in four pilot challenge domains:
- Sustainability & Climate Change
- Digital Society & Global Citizenship
- Health & Well-being
- Culture: Diversity & Identity
The target for this task was to guarantee the Authorisation of the four pilot domains in terms of skills and mindset, international experience, diverse classrooms, and/or SDG perspective, while ensuring that broad roll-out of these innovations across Aurora was prepared.
3.4.1 Pilot Domain Sustainability & Climate Change – Lead: University of Innsbruck; Co-lead: University of Duisburg-Essen
3.4.2 Pilot Domain Digital Society & Global Citizenship – Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
3.4.3 Pilot Domain Health & Well-Being – Lead: University of Naples Federico II
3.4.4 Pilot Domain Culture: Diversity & Identity – Lead: University of Iceland; Co-lead: University of Duisburg-Essen
3.5 Aurora Teaching for Societal Impact
This task systematically equipped and supported academic teachers in Teaching for Societal Impact in terms of skills and mindset, international experience, diverse classrooms, and/or SDG perspective.
By the end of the three-year period:
- All partner universities offered training and support for teachers and support staff.
- At least 15 teachers and 15 support staff per partner were trained.
- All partners shared common principles on the role of Learning for Societal Impact in the recruitment, training, and assessment of academics.
Lead: University of Iceland
3.6 Aurora Learning Analytics
This task focused on strengthening the evidence base of Aurora education with big data analysis. The target of this task was to learn how learning analytics was used at all Aurora partners to enhance Learning for Societal Impact and operationalize an Aurora infrastructure for big data analysis of university education.
Work Package 4 (WP4) strengthened Aurora’s engagement with its academic and broader communities across five practices. It developed co-creation practices, academic collaboration with cross-fertilization between education and research, social entrepreneurship and innovation, capacity development, and further strengthened the identity of the Aurora European University Alliance.
4.1 Co-creation Practice
This task’s objective involved making co-creation a generally accepted embedded practice with academics skilled in co-creation as a technique.
By the end of the three-year funding period, all academics across Aurora had access to co-creation training, the required skills were present across every faculty and institute, and approximately 200 academics have received training or support in co-creation.
Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
4.2 Aurora Academic Collaboration
Through this task, the aim was to develop academic collaboration within Aurora towards the intra-Alliance optimum, enhancing cross-fertilisation between education and research.
By the end of the three-year funding period:
- Academics in the four pilot domains actively collaborated.
- At least 180 academics participated in collaborative events.
- At least 54 academics gave guest lectures within Aurora.
- A PhD jury pool of at least 72 members was established.
- At least 18 instances of researchers used Alliance member research facilities.
Lead: University of Innsbruck
Co-lead: Palacký University in Olomouc
4.3 Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation
This task aimed to develop Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation as a common field of expertise at the Alliance level.
The main targets involved a joint SE&I available to all Aurora students with a reach of at least 180 students, and a total of three joint SE&I undertaken projects.
Lead: Copenhagen Business School
4.4 Aurora Capacity Development Support Program
The objective of this task was to narrow the quality gap in higher education and research across different parts of Europe by supporting universities in Central and Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries to strengthen their capacity for academic excellence and societal relevance.
By the end of the three-year funding period, at least 30 target universities have been reached and informed about Aurora support, at least 5 Aurora deliverables have been adapted for capacity development support, and at least three capacity development support projects affecting at least 9 target universities have started up.
Lead: Palacký University in Olomouc
Co-lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
4.5 Aurora Institute
The goal of this task was to express and enhance the identity of the Aurora European University Alliance as a European institution, beyond the identity of the individual member universities of the Alliance.
By the end of the three-year funding period, the Aurora Institute served as an effective platform for internal activities and external dissemination, a high-level discussion forum, and a shared repository of materials accessible to all member universities.
Work Package 5 (WP5) made the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a leading narrative for research with the Aurora Alliance and drove Aurora campuses to become sustainable from an SDG perspective.
Lead: University of Innsbruck
Co-lead: Universitat Rovira i Vigili
5.1 Aurora SDG Research Dashboard
This task aimed to turn the SDGs into a leading narrative for research in the Aurora Alliance. Its leading goals were to make the SDG Research Dashboard a robust and operational tool and to make it widely available to other universities and networks.
Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Co-lead: University of Duisburg-Essen
5.2 Aurora Sustainability Education
This task aimed to turn the SDGs into a leading narrative for education in the Aurora Alliance. Among its targets are a robust, operational SDG Education Dashboard, available for other universities and networks, and giving Aurora students the opportunity to gain an SDG perspective on their studies. By the end of the three-year funding period, at least 750 students had gained an SDG perspective in their education, and at least 90 had completed a joint course on the SDGs as an interconnected system.
Lead: University of Iceland
5.3 Aurora Sustainable Campus Action Plan (ASCA)
The goal of this task was to make the Aurora Alliance campuses sustainable in the SDG sense. Among the expected targets were refocusing and reorganizing the organizational governance, culture, and operations of the Aurora universities towards becoming fully zero-carbon-footprint organizations. Moreover, to ensure that aurora campuses are in the national vanguard in low footprint and annual carbon footprint reduction. Finally, within the alliance, develop the exchange of good and best sustainability practices and, where necessary, implement them.
Lead: University of Innsbruck
Co-lead: Palacky University in Olomouc
Work Package 6 (WP6) secured the lasting institutional impact of the Aurora Alliance and actively shared its best and good practices across other institutions and networks.
6.1 Sustainability of the Aurora Alliance Program
This task’s goal was to create the Aurora European University as a lasting institution within the European Education Area. After the three-year funding period, Aurora ensured lasting impact on the skills and mindset of students, collaboration practice and SDG-sustainability, achieved enduring commitment to its vision among students, staff, leadership and external stakeholders, and safeguards adequate resources, infrastructure and tools for the continued development of the Aurora Alliance programme.
Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc
6.2 Dissemination
This task aimed to actively share good practices and experiences with other institutions and networks. After the three-year funding period, Aurora ensured productive interaction between European University Alliances and with other groupings of universities, as well as with non-HEI stakeholders in higher education and research. This was accompanied by a growing uptake of Aurora deliverables within and outside Aurora.