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Members of the UDE Aurora Community sit at a long table to meet, talk, and exchange ideas

UDE Aurora Community Meet-Up

Written by Mayannah Dahlheim on . Posted in Events, News.

On July 7, 2025, members of the Aurora UDE Community came together for an informal meet-up to connect, exchange ideas, and welcome new faces. Colleagues from various Aurora work packages based at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), as well as several Aurora student ambassadors, took the opportunity to share insights about their work and their experiences, and learn more about each other’s activities within the Aurora network. The gathering provided an open space for networking, questions, and inspiration, particularly for newcomers interested in contributing to Aurora’s mission of combining academic excellence with societal impact.

Thank you to everyone who joined and made the exchange so enriching. The Aurora Community at the UDE looks forward to continuing these conversations and strengthening connections across disciplines and departments

For further inquiries about the UDE Aurora Community, please contact the Aurora Alliance Office here.

First-Ever Aurora Open a Smashing Success

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Events, News.

The Aurora Open 2025 made its debut this year, bringing together volleyball, and international student community-building. Hosted by Universität Innsbruck (UIBK) in collaboration with the Universitäts-Sportinstitut Innsbruck (USI) and Palacký University Olomouc, the event marked the beginning of what will hopefully become a valued tradition within Aurora.

A Vibrant Start

Aurora students from across Europe came together in Innsbruck for an unforgettable combination of academic engagement, sport, and cultural exchange. The event began with a relaxed and welcoming evening by the lake, offering students the chance to connect informally before the official start.

The following morning featured interactive sessions at UIBK, featuring exchanges between the Aurora Student Council. The conference continued at the USI Sports Campus with a keynote lecture on Health & Well-Being: The Role of Sports & Mental Health, exploring the vital connection between physical activity and mental resilience in student life.

In the evening, participants joined the UIBK Summer Festival, a yearly celebration with live music, food trucks, games, and plenty of opportunities to meet, network, and enjoy the summer atmosphere.

   
Students from Aurora universities experienced formal and informal opportunities of learning and intercultural exchange

Sport, Collaboration, and International Spirit

On 27 and 28 June, the Aurora Open continued with two full days of Beach Volleyball Tournaments, offering an exciting and active component to the programme. Alongside the matches, students also took part in the Peer Learning Activity entitled “Together We Learn, Together We Rise”, facilitated by the Aurora Student Council. The session highlighted Aurora’s philosophy of peer learning as a tool for international community building.

The tournament itself was designed to celebrate Aurora’s dedication to Health & Wellbeing and fosters teamwork and international engagement. Students competed with great spirit and sportsmanship, forming connections that extended well beyond the games.

The tournament featured teams from five Aurora universities:

Evenings were dedicated to the social programme, including a relaxed burger party where students and organizers came together to celebrate the end of the academic year, and the successful first edition of the Aurora Open.

Beach volleyball tournament continued over two days against the beautiful backdrop of the Tyrolian mountains.

And the Winners Are…

After two exciting days of competition under the intense Innsbruck sun, the beach volleyball tournament concluded. The final results showed the diversity of the Aurora student community, but above all emphasized the unifying power of sports.


Aurora Open beach volleyball competition players from Aurora universities

In the Women’s tournament, the results were as follows:

  • 1st Place: Czech it Out!, Palacký University Olomouc
  • 2nd Place: Jamonas, Universitat Rovira i Virgili
  • 3rd Place: Die Unselleriösen, Universität Innsbruck

In the Men’s tournament, the winners were:

  • 1st Place: Team URV, Universitat Rovira i Virgili
  • 2nd Place: JBG, Universität Innsbruck
  • 3rd Place: Bananenflanken, Universität Innsbruck

The level of play, and fair-play across all matches was truly impressive. Thanks and congratulations go out to all the teams for their commitment, energy, and collaboration throughout the event, which will hopefully be the first of many more Aurora sports events to come.

Challenges in Europe: Student Conference at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Written by Benedetta Toledo on . Posted in Courses, Events.

Organised within the activities related to Aurora educational hub Cultures: Identities and Diversities, this third edition of the course on Challenges in Europe culminated with a Student Conference from 4 to 6 June 2025 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Challenges in Europe is one of the two courses that make up Understanding Europe, a joint educational programme offered within Aurora. This year, it was realised in cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) and the Università Federico II of Naples (UNINA), and was highly appreciated by participating students.

Instructors, staff and students in the Challenges in Europe course at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Addressing European Issues Through Challenges in Europe

The main objective of the Challenges in Europe activities was to present and have students address some of the most relevant challenges that Europe is facing and will face in the near future. To meet this objective, the course is subdivided into two tracks on Sustainable Tourism instructed by UDE, and Imag(-ing) Cities instructed by UNINA. The course started on 14 April 2025 with an introductory lecture on the general objectives of the course and specific thematic in-depth studies. It further included a didactic phase consisting of 6 online lectures, and concluded with in-person activities organised from 4 to 6 June 2025.

To this end, students had the opportunity to choose a track related to a specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), with a focus on SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12. Responsible Consumption and Production. They were then able to delve deeper into the topic and analyse diverse case studies of contributions from different disciplines.

In total, the course had 7 instructors, with two coming from UDE (Florian Freitag and Zohra Hassan-Pieper) and 5 from UNINA (Francesca Scamardella, Benedetta Toledo, Giovan Giuseppe Monti, Francesco Casalbordino, Maria Fierro). 12 students from five Aurora universities UDE, UNINA, Universität Innsbruck, Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, attended the course.

Presentation on the Imag(-ing) Cities track instructed by UNINA
Students from Aurora universities attended Challenges in Europe course held at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

 

Diversity In Learning Approaches

Under the supervision of the instructors, students first developed their own research projects on their chosen topics. Then, they carried out a workshop activity with the aim of working together by sharing new approaches and methodologies across the diverse topics. The combination of support from Aurora universities, lecturers and the active participation of students ensured that the course resulted in high-level training, knowledge acquisition, and growth in personal development. The course was also an important moment of international networking, where multicultural and transdisciplinary approaches allowed critical, unprecedented and stimulating perspectives to be opened up for the challenges ahead.

 

Join the First Series of Aurora Peace Talks

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Events, News.

Join us from September for the first series of Aurora Peace Talks. This lecture series will feature talks by our colleagues from Kharkiv and beyond, and allows them to share their experiences and expertise.

Kharkiv city is one of Ukraine’s most important economic and industrial centres and the second biggest educational center in Ukraine,  known as the city of students and youth.  About 300 000 students (12 000 foreign ones) found their home in one of the Kharkiv’s 11 universities and 38 higher educational institutions, including both public and private universities, academies and specialized institutes.

The city and the region have since 2022 come under heavy attack as one of the initial targets of Russia’s invasion. The city and the region have been bravely fighting off the aggression.

In the last month the city has been experiencing yet another wave of  heavy attacks, with random bombardments of civilian object causing civilian casualties, evacuations and displacements of several thousand of its residents.

Given the location of the city and Khakriv region, the situation for its citizens will remain precarious for a long time ahead. In Aurora, we have been working dedicatedly to provide much needed support, especially to our partners at Karazin Khakriv National University.

The speakers in this lecture series come from Karazin University, but also other universities in Khakriv, as we want  to provide platform for their voices to be heard in these most challenging of times. This first series in particular features talks from Kharkiv Scholars at Risk at Copenhagen Business School.

The Peace Talks lecture series allows our colleagues to speak out, share their experiences but also their expertise as academics in addressing the devastation and future post-war recovery and peace building needs.

Support them by joining the following inspiring Talks, starting form September this year:

  • Between Copenhagen and Kharkiv researching resilience
    • 26th of September 2024, 15.00 CET | Serhii Prokopenko, MSc
    • Zoom Link
  • Energy communities as the key for Ukraine’s energy security
    • 17th of October 2024, 15.00 CET | Albina Dioba, Ph.D.
    • Zoom Link
  • Becoming Part of a Community: The Process of Ukraine’s Accession to the European Union
    • 4th of November 2024, 15.00 CET | Assoc. Prof. Manuele Citi
    • Zoom Link
  • Public Discourse and Academic Research in Representing People Under Occupation: Are war-caused conflicts transformable?
    • 16th of December 2024, 15.00 CET | Prof. Yuliia Soroka, Ph.D.
    • Zoom Link

Aurora Peace Talks – Programme

This lecture series is organized by the Aurora Karazin Peace Education Hub of Work Package 7. For more information on the Aurora Peace Talks lecture series, contact Selma Porobic.

Aurora Staff Training in Ohrid Equips Academics for International Teaching

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Events, News, Trainings.

On 18 April, the first Aurora Capacity Development Staff Training took place in Ohrid, North Macedonia. In a bid to enhance global learning opportunities, the COIL Staff Training aimed to empower educators with the necessary tools and knowledge to implement Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).

This event is the first in a series of trainings, organised within the framework of Aurora’s Capacity Development Programme. These are organized by Palacky University Olomouc and VU Amsterdam, together with Aurora associate partners. The aim of these training events is twofold. First, we aim to strengthen the capacity of the Aurora associate partner universities for academic excellence and societal relevance. Second, we support them in establishing themselves as regional hubs for sharing best practices.

Bringing together a group of 30 participants, mainly from the University of Tetova and South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, the Aurora Ohrid Staff Training marks a significant step towards fostering cross-cultural educational collaboration. Led by COIL expert Marina Vives from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the workshop offered participating academics a deep dive into the utilisation of COIL, opening the doors to internationalise their curriculum together with other Aurora universities.

The training started with an icebreaker exercise, an important best practice when setting up a COIL. Then, Marina introduced the participants to the concept of COIL, and shared more best practices. The participants were then divided into groups and encouraged to start building a COIL course on their own. In a short time, the participants created promising, interdisciplinary COIL course concepts. The participants were excited to develop these concepts further and put them into practice.

Preceded by meetings between Aurora representatives and the management of the University of Tetova, the event set the stage for future collaborations. The staff training event empowered our associate partners to unlock their international potential through COIL. Through this initial step, they will be able to further develop the internationalisation of their institutions.

Linguistic diversity, intercultural competences & European identity: and Aurora Blended Intensive Program for Europe to come

Written by rostanetek on . Posted in Events.

25 participants from 4 European universities with over 22 languages spoken. Students, teachers, and staff were working together towards a common goal: to train and discuss European linguistic and cultural plurality and the development of intercultural skills. In the background Naples and the Mediterranean Sea, its cultures, its languages.

The Aurora Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) Erasmus+ “Linguistic diversity, intercultural competences & European identity”, was carried out in mid-September to educate teachers, students, and staff for a plurilingual and intercultural Europe. BIPs are blended intensive programs of study and research. The BIP is coordinated by the University Federico II (UNINA) in partnership with the Innsbruck Universität (UIBK), the Universitat Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona (URV), and the Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci (UPOL), was designed as part of the Aurora programme activities and financed with Erasmus+ European funds.

The four thematic sessions addressed the topics of European political identity, European multilingualism, the educational methodologies of linguistic ethnography, and the development of intercultural competencies in multilingual education and training.

The topic of European political identity was addressed in two seminars by Alessandro Arienzo (UNINA), designed to understand how our recent history and culture have shaped our ideas of Europe and how Europe as an idea is the result of stratified historical and political paths closely connected to social and individual experiences. The concept of European multilingualism was addressed in two workshops by Ulrike Jessner-Schmid (UIBK) in which the participants, working in groups, by expressing their linguistic portraits, experienced how their prior (multi)linguistic knowledge can help them in learning a new language or decoding texts in other languages. Two workshops by Lidia Gallego-Balsa (URV) dealt with the topics of pedagogical translanguaging and linguistic ethnography as a tool for developing competencies in an additional foreign language. Finally, intercultural competencies were the subject of three workshops by Markus Öbrink (UPOL) with the aim of discussing intercultural communication and conflict mediation. The group developed a common intercultural basis by practising techniques such as asking questions, listening effectively, communicating clearly, and anticipating conflicts.

Participants were engaged in the co-creation of workshop activities, as well as in small group activities and plenary discussions. All activities were based on teamwork and challenge-based: the participants, divided into groups, tried to tackle specific problems through discussion and debate. The educational experience was enriched by participating in the Erasmus Welcome Day organised by UNINA with a visit to the Paleontological University Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, and the Morra Greco Art Foundation.

With an outstanding 90% of participants responding to be “highly satisfied” with the activities, and willing to continue in some for the experience, and an overall 80% “satisfied” rate for each of the workshops, this Blended Intensive Program was a success!

 

Some comments from the participants:

“The event with the Aurora community was an unforgettable experience. I have learned a variety of new things and skills, both for my professional and my personal development”;

“I will forever be grateful for the many new things I have been able to learn, the people I have met, and all of the great moments lived in this city”;

“Participating in the Blending Intensive Program was a wonderful experience for me. The program’s discussion approach was excellent, and I learned a lot from it. I am now even more motivated to continue researching multilingualism after completing my PhD studies. The BIP program enhanced my understanding of how multilingualism can be beneficial and provide social and cognitive advantages to those who speak multiple languages”;

“This ensured that the course met my expectations of a course focused on Linguistic diversity, intercultural competencies & European identity. It also exceeded my expectations in many ways in terms of meeting new people and learning methods from other universities”;

“Meeting students and professors from different universities and getting to know their opinions on various topics has been an enrichment for me”.

 

The scientific and educative collaboration initiated in Naples will continue next year in Olomouc, with a new Blended Program dedicated to the study of European multilingualism and educational perspectives for Europe to come.

 

Fostering Community Building through Blended Intensive Programme at Universität Innsbruck

Written by UIBK on . Posted in Events, News, Trainings.

Foster community building: This was the overarching theme of the first Aurora BIP Staff Week, which took place at Universität Innsbruck from October 2-6, 2023. Participants from almost all Aurora partners – coming from both academia and administration – exchanged manifold ideas with colleagues from Universität Innsbruck to develop new activities and projects.

With more than 50 members of staff, the first Aurora Staff Week at Universität Innsbruck was a great success. In different formats and settings, the main topics of Transformative Education, Innovation Management, Societal Engagement, and Internationalization were explored in depth over several days. Best practices from Universität Innsbruck and the Aurora partner universities served as the basis for the exchange, stimulating a mutual dialogue in the sense of peer learning and opening space for creativity and new ideas.

“Personal encounters are incredibly important for a network like Aurora to be filled with life,” emphasises Rector Veronika Sexl, who is responsible for international affairs at Universität Innsbruck. “I am very pleased that so many colleagues, both in-house and from the Aurora partner universities, have actively taken up the invitation to exchange ideas and that new projects are already in the pipeline.” The “matchmaking sessions” were particularly fruitful, where concrete new activities, such as the development of joint courses, could be discussed in individual smaller settings.

First Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) hosted by Universität Innsbruck

The Aurora Staff Week, which was funded and organised as an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), took place in Innsbruck after a virtual exchange of participants in September. For the first time, the Universität Innsbruck served as a hosting institution for the event. The Aurora Staff Week will conclude with a virtual follow-up meeting at the end of October.

BIPs are teaching/learning formats jointly run by several universities and combine virtual components with physical short-term mobility (“blended”). BIPs are a new mobility format embedded in the Erasmus program, implemented as part of the Erasmus program generation 2021-2027. Within Aurora, the general goal is to develop more joint BIPs between Aurora partners in the coming years. These can be used for training as well as teaching purposes.

Aurora Creative Writing Workshop in Olomouc

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Events, News.

In the end of May, the Aurora Creative Writing Workshop will take place in Olomouc. This creative writing workshop builds on the world-renowned expertise of the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing Department that launched the careers of many celebrated authors such as Kazuo Ishiguro. Hosted by the Department of English and American Studies of Palacký University Olomouc, the workshop will give you the opportunity to develop your creative writing skills in the charming baroque city of Olomouc.

This five-day creative writing residency, organized between 22 and 26 May, 2023, is open to interested applicants from all Aurora Universities. The program will focus on developing your creative writing skills in English through a series of workshops and collaborative exercises together with other students from across Europe. In the evening, a social program will be organized, and on Friday the 26th you will have the opportunity to participate in the Aurora Student Conference in Olomouc, where you can meet even more students from Aurora Universities.

A more detailed program will be announced soon.

Interested? Check out www.aurora.upol.cz/creative-writing-Olomouc for more information on how to apply!

First Aurora micro-credential “Sustainability & Climate Change” awarded

Written by UIBK on . Posted in Events, News.

On 2 February 2023, Universität Innsbruck awarded the first micro-credential certificate to Giusi Merola from Università Federico II di Napoli. The micro-credential, part of the Aurora joint programme on “Sustainability & Climate Change,” was awarded for Giusi’s completion of 10 ECTS credits.

Giusi is the first student, not just at Federico II but throughout the Aurora European University Alliance, to receive a micro-credential, making her the trailblazer for a new era in higher education within Aurora. A micro-credential is a record of the learning outcomes acquired after a short course of study. The courses are designed to provide students with specific knowledge, skills, and competencies that meet societal, personal, cultural, or labour market needs. Micro-credentials are portable and can be shared with potential employers or higher education institutions.

Giusi’s experience with the micro-credential was overwhelmingly positive. She shares, “During the lessons, we learned about climate change from various perspectives: anthropological, social, cultural, and scientific. We were given the tools to identify the realities that truly care about sustainability. As a final test, we wrote a report identifying companies close to receiving the B-Corp certification and developed a social start-up project which was presented at the European Forum of Alpbach in Austria to hundreds of students and investors. The experiences enriched me as a person, added valuable skills to my CV, and created numerous online and offline connections.”

The “Sustainability & Climate Change” micro-credential is a unique and innovative approach to learning that aligns with the European Council Recommendations. The micro-credential allows participating universities to share the latest research results with students in real time through research-led teaching and challenge-based learning. The certificate not only strengthens opportunities for inclusive international learning but also engages all partners in the Aurora Alliance to provide quality education. Moreover, the micro-credential certificate represents the effort for interoperability of the Aurora universities’ IT systems and connection to common European interfaces and platforms, such as Europass and European Digital Credentials for Learning. This is a further step to help overcome recognition problems that still exist in some places, often due to national study laws.

Universität Innsbruck’s issuance of the first micro-credential certificate demonstrates the potential for a new and innovative approach to learning across Aurora universities. The “Sustainability & Climate Change” micro-credential provides students with a unique opportunity to gain specialized knowledge and competencies while simultaneously addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

Aurora Duisburg-Essen Virtual Biannual

Written by Anna Klas on . Posted in Events, News.

In less than a month, the Aurora community will gather virtually for our Autumn Biannual, hosted by the University of Duisburg-Essen.

The program looks to the future of Aurora and premiers research on sustainable futures for our planet. Expect short keynotes on clean water, sustainable tourism, and breaks filled with art, music and accounts of refugee routes by scholars- and artists-at-risk in the UDE Academy in Exile.

Register here to attend the biannual.

Click here to access the programme and biographies of speakers.