The Board of the Aurora Universities Network has announced the appointment of Ms. Anne-May Janssen to succeed Mr. Kees Kouwenaar as Aurora Secretary General. Kees who has been delivered outstanding work as the Secretary General of Aurora, will retire in July. Anne-May will start working at the Aurora office in Amsterdam on July 1st.
The University of Iceland warmly welcomes Anne-May and looks forward to the continued fruitful cooperation within Aurora. Anne-May will bring great expertise to Aurora, and the we are convinced that she has the competence and skills to guide Aurora to the next stage.
Anne-May worked for many years in Brussels on European higher education policies on behalf of the Netherlands House for Education and Research (Neth-ER), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centers (NFU) and the Dutch institution Nuffic. Through her work, she influenced, among other things, the research priorities of Horizon 2020, the European Union's Research and Innovation Program. Anne-May now heads the Department of European Engagement at Universities UK International (UUKi) in London.
Kees and Anne-May recently met for an interview to share their views on recent developments in Higher Education and the embeddedness of university in society with the Aurora Community:
The Aurora University Network is a robust cooperation network of European comprehensive research universities that share a strong commitment to social responsibility and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The University of Iceland has been active in Aurora since its establishment in 2016 and Rector Jón Atli Benediktsson currently serves as its President. The Aurora cooperation was expanded and enhanced in 2020 when the Aurora Alliance received a grant from the European Commission to further strengthen Aurora's collaboration in teaching development, research and innovation as one of the European University Alliances.