Aurora Meetings Highlight Strategic Development in Education and Training

International relations and mobility experts, and Aurora Institutional Coordinators, gathered to exchange views on the strategy for Aurora, and the development of Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) and the digital campus.

 Hosted by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and the Aurora Central Office, close to thirty participants from across Aurora universities met over the week for two major events: Workshop on BIPs and the Aurora Executive Committee Seminar. The objective of these meetings was to move further in the work initiated by the Aurora 2030 Work Package 8 Enabling Mobility and Exchange, and to discuss the future of Aurora and its impact.

Aurora Executive Committee and experts on education and training gather at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV)

Leveraging BIPs for Mobility and Exchange in Aurora

Opened by the Rector of URV Josep Pallarès, the programme began with the Workshop on BIPs led by Marina Vives from the URV International Centre and Nanna Teitsdóttir from the University of Iceland. Blended Intensive Programmes are short-term intensive programmes that use innovative learning and teaching methods.

Part of the training includes a virtual component that requires online cooperation between educators and participants. By enabling new and more flexible mobility formats that combine physical mobility with a virtual component, BIPs aim to reach students from all backgrounds, fields of study and study cycles.

BIPs may include challenge-based learning, in which transnational and transdisciplinary teams collaborate to address issues in society. These issues could be linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or other societal problems identified by companies, cities or regions.

URV Rector Josep Pallarès Marzal opens the Workshop on BIPs to a full room of participants, including Aurora Institutional Coordinators from all member universities

The workshop included sessions on the long-term strategy for BIPs within Aurora universities, a critical audit of the current and future challenges, and a thorough review of the manual for mobility and communication of Aurora opportunities. Further discussions allowed participants to reflect upon the key aspects of blended intensive programmes, such as the type of collaborations involved, skills the BIPs are intended to improve, and values like diversity and inclusion that must be considered.

“The organisers are very satisfied with the agreements reached in a very collaborative and almost unanimous spirit,” said Marina Vives, Lead for Aurora 2030 Work Package 8 at URV.

Aurora Institutional Coordinators and participants of the Workshop on BIP work hand-in-hand during brainstorm sessions on Blended Intensive Programmes in Aurora

Moving Forward in Aurora

The Workshop on BIPs was followed by the Executive Committee Seminar, a strategic meeting of Aurora Institutional Coordinators representing their universities. The seminar opened with an introduction by Ramon Puras, Aurora Secretary General, about milestone developments in Aurora and on the Aurora 2030 European university alliance programme.

During the meeting, Institutional Coordinators also weighed in on the future of Aurora and its impact. Intensive work sessions were organised around the strategic planning for the alliance, as well as the progress of the Aurora digital campus services.

Full member of Aurora, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) has been an integral partner since 2019. Together with other universities within the network, URV is aligned with Aurora’s vision of influencing societal transformation through academic excellence and research.