The Aurora Spring Biannual will be held online 20-21 May. This is the 10th Biannual Meeting. The University of Iceland organizes the event, which will combine open presentations and seminars with closed sessions where working groups within Aurora will meet and discuss their ongoing work.
The aim of the conference is to create an opportunity for staff and student representatives of Aurora universities to get to know the ongoing work of Aurora better, meet new partners, learn from each other and reflect on the future of the Aurora cooperation.
Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland and President of the Aurora University Network, will open the Biannual. Lilja Alfreðsdóttir, Minister of Education, Science and Culture, will deliver an address as well as Adrienn Király from the European Commission and Paul Boyle, Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University and Vice-President of the European University Association (EUA). Numerous other inspiring speakers from the Aurora community will also contribute to the event.
Aurora places great emphasis on students' voices shaping all of Aurora´s policies, projects and innovations. Emily Reise, International Officer of the Student Council at the University of Iceland and Aurora Student Council Secretary will participate in a panel discussion on the future of cooperation with universities in the United Kingdom following Brexit and outline the views of students.
Further information on speakers, presentations and open sessions can be found in the conference programme. Those who are interested in Aurora and want to listen to the open presentations can register for participation until Wednesday evening 19 May.
A new Web Portal and mapping of courses
An Aurora Web Portal was recently opened on the University of Iceland´s website. One of Aurora's key objectives is to foster societal innovation through the education and training of students to enable them to better address societal challenges. This means increasing the number of courses within the university that link studies to the UN´s Sustainable Development Goals, using teaching methods that systematically develop students' key interdisciplinary competencies, offer an international experience as part of their studies or are taught jointly with one or more of the other Aurora universities. Currently there is an ongoing the Aurora survey to map courses within the University of Iceland that lie thematically, or could lie thematically, within the Aurora Pilot Domain and help us connect academics within Aurora universities who are interested in collaborating in the same areas.