Aurora is a long-term cooperation of 10 universities that set out with the goal of increasing and deepening cross-disciplinary cooperation within higher education in Europe.

Aurora offers students a variety of opportunities, for example open workshops and projects such as hackathons and seminars that are advertised on social media and through mass emails, shorter and longer courses at other Aurora universities where the credits gained count towards your degree at your home university, and cooperative projects spanning an entire academic year, such as the Student Schemes. In addition to all that, the Aurora Student Council is continuously working on cooperative projects.

The universities that take part in the cooperation alongside the University of Iceland are located in Spain, Italy, France, England, Czechia, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Denmark.

The Aurora Network was originally formed because of the universities’ mutual goals and longing to cooperate but has, in the last few years, received funding from the European Commission as the Aurora Alliance; one of 44 university alliances funded through a project titled the European Universities initiative.

The last semester was eventful, to say the least, and it is therefore suitable to finish the first month of a new year by wrapping up a few of the projects students worked on in the autumn semester of 2022.

At the start of last semester Aurora advertised for students who wanted to get involved in the Student Schemes. In total, we received over 100 applications from students at Aurora universities. From the University of Iceland, 25 students signed up as either an Ambassador or Champion.

One of the largest projects Aurora has undertaken in the past few months has been the writing of a bid for continued funding and students have been involved in that work since the very beginning.

That work started last summer and, as the President of the Aurora Student Council, I had a seat on the so-called Editorial Committee that met regularly and laid the groundwork for the new application.

In September, Institutional Coordinators of all 10 universities gathered in Copenhagen Business School and spent two days deciding Aurora’s emphases and projects for the next four years. Two student representatives took part in that work, the President and Vice President of the Aurora Student Council, Alma Ágústsdóttir from the University of Iceland and Hanus Patera from Palacký University Olomouc.

We worked continuously on the proposal after that but the next large-scale project wasn’t until November when the Student Council met in Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. We had two days of meetings to collect student emphases and then presented them to the Vice Rectors of all the Aurora universities.

The students representing the University of Iceland were Alma Ágústsdóttir, the International Officer of the Student Council of the University of Iceland, and Rebekka Karlsdóttir, the President of the Student Council of the University of Iceland.

One of the students’ main emphases was that each university would work towards having a paid student position. This is because they believed the workload of those students who take on the most responsibility for Aurora exceeds what can be expected of a volunteer. Such a position would also increase equality, diversity, and inclusion since some students’ economic position makes them unable to take on volunteer work alongside their studies, regardless of their interest in the work. The new position of Student Coordinator would ensure that each university has a fully engaged student, responsible for lending support to other students who do work on behalf of Aurora, assist with marketing at an institutional level and sit on the Student Council, among other responsibilities.

This endeavour was successful and the position of Student Coordinator was included in the new application for continued funding, that Aurora submitted on January 30th.

In November Aurora also held a virtual Biannual conference, hosted by Universität Duisburg-Essen. There, the Student Council organised a World Café event on mental health (which is the Council’s emphasis for this academic year) titled Mental Health: Sharing Best Practices. There, students, professors and staff of Aurora universities gathered to identify which mental health support efforts were successful, where support is lacking and how we can do better. This event enabled people to learn from each other on a cross-institutional level. At the World Café’s conclusion the Student Council gathered the results and, building on those results, we will continue to work on increased mental health support throughout the course of this semester.

In December, Palacký University Olomouc in Czechia hosted a conference titled European Universities – Future of Higher Education Forum where several alliances, funded through the European Universities initiative, gathered to discuss the future of European universities. There I spoke on student participation within governance and discussed how we may employ the power of students to the fullest.

The rectors of all 10 Aurora universities also gathered in Amsterdam in December to approve all that was included in Aurora’s new bid and, as the Student Council President, I sat that meeting on behalf of students.

Since then the planning of Aurora’s work for the next four years has continued, culminating in the handing in of the application yesterday, on January 30th. Having been a part of that work since its beginning I feel confident in saying that the future of Aurora is bright!

If you are interested in international cooperation and want to know more about Aurora, I encourage you to check out our website.

Here you can see all Aurora courses currently open to applicants. If you want to take part in forming the universities’ policies and continued work in certain sectors such as sustainability, digitalisation and teaching, you can still register as an Ambassador or Champion here. If you want to stay up to date on open opportunities and the work of the Student Council you can follow us on Instagram.