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Aurora Leadership Development Programme
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Aurora Leadership Programme
Aurora is a leadership development programme for women, designed to help address the issue of the under-representation of women in leadership roles in the higher education sector. A highly-innovative programme, it was developed by Advance HE.
Overview
Aurora is a leadership ignition journey, inspiring women to achieve their career goals in higher education through a combination of individual and group learning, mentoring and networking.
The objective of the programme is to embed a leadership mindset whereby women identify as leaders and seek appropriate opportunities to develop capabilities, skills and networks to support them in their developing careers.
"I would like to say how grateful I am for being sponsored to attend this programme. I appreciate it enormously on so many levels and have every intention of using every word I heard to pursue my career objectives." is how a recent participant described the programme. Read more about colleagues experiences' with Aurora.
DCU's Aurora Champion is Prof Anne Sinnott, Deputy President and the DCU Aurora Adviser is Joanne Mulligan from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) unit.
Who is Aurora for?
Aurora is for women who have not undertaken any leadership training before. This lends itself to being appropriate for women up to Associate Professor level or Professional Grade 5A, who would like to develop and explore issues relating to leadership roles and responsibilities. Applicants must be endorsed by their Head of School/Unit.
In line with DCU's commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, we particularly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and from underrepresented groups within higher education.
How does Aurora work?
Aurora consists of four development days and two action learning sets. Development days focus on:
- Identity, Impact and Voice;
- Core Leadership;
- Politics and Influence;
- Adaptive Leadership.
Action learning sets allow smaller groups of participants from across the sector to discuss their personal work-related challenges and seek support through the action learning process, to identify solutions and next steps.
Participants are matched with a mentor for the duration of the programme through the DCU Staff Mentoring Scheme.
Aurora Programme 2024/25
The majority of elements of the Aurora Programme are delivered online via zoom.
Dates for each session are as follows:
Delivery Day | Date | Method | Time |
DCU Welcome Session (with Deputy President, Prof Anne Sinnott) | 30th Sept 2024 | In person (Glasnevin) | 3 - 4 pm |
Introduction & Welcome | 11th Oct 2024 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Development Day 1: Identity, Impact and Voice | 18th Oct 2024 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Development Day 2: Core Leadership | 8th Nov 2024 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Action Learning Set 1 | 29th Nov 2024 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Development Day 3: Politics and Influence | 12th Dec 2024 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Development Day 4: Adaptive Leadership Skills | 22nd Jan 2025 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Your Future in Higher Education (optional session) | 14th Feb 2025 | In person (InterContinental, Dublin) | 9.30am - 4pm |
Action Learning Set 2 | 6th Mar 2025 | Online - Zoom | 10am - 3pm |
Application Process
Applications for Aurora 2024/25 are now open. Please apply using the Aurora Application Form.
The deadline for applying is Monday 9th September 2024 at 5pm.
Places are limited and applications must be endorsed by Head of School/Unit. Programme participation cost is payable by your School/Unit. The participation cost is £1,100 per person (approx. €1,300).
Please contact edi@dcu.ie if you have any queries regarding the programme or the application process.
Read more about the programme modules
Aurora consists of a Welcome and Introduction, four development days and two days devoted to Action Learning Sets. Delegates can mark the end of their Aurora journey with the final face-to-face development day - Your Future in HE.
The Welcome and Introduction session is an integral part of the programme. It will give participants an opportunity to meet their fellow Aurorans and start forming relationships crucial for their development. We will discuss how the Aurora journey will unfold throughout the year and offer some practical information about the online delivery platforms used on Aurora. The delegates will hear from an inspirational speaker who will share her experience of being a woman leader. They will also be invited to reflect on their individual objectives for taking part in Aurora.
Identity, Impact and Voice will launch participants into their leadership journey by asking them ‘what makes you, you’ and focusing on the people who have inspired them. We will also discuss how their identity impacts their leadership in positive ways. Lastly, we will be thinking about what it means to be on the receiving end of each participant, how they show up and how they might flex their communication style to have a greater impact on all those around them.
Core Leadership is all about you – who you are, what matters to you, and how to mobilise the tools in your REAL leadership toolbox. Working together, supporting each other, we explore purpose and values and what these mean for leaders. Articulating the what and the why of your leadership brings clarity about you and what you represent. Sharing our stories and experiences, we explore leadership in HE, further developing your network.
The first of these two sessions will be hosted by Advance HE, and the delegates will be introduced to the peer-to-peer support process of Action Learning Sets (ALS). This is a widely used and reliable model for helping people form supportive groups, develop their listening and communication skills and solve their own issues within their career. Following an introduction to the process of ALS, delegates will be allocated to groups of 4–5 from a mixture of institutions and areas of higher education, where they will spend the duration of the session developing those skills through an experiential learning process.
This development day invites delegates to look at their individual leadership against the backdrop of their institution’s culture and politics. They will be invited to assess their emotional intelligence and personal influence, and emerge with an enhanced ability to amplify the profile they want to nurture. They will be encouraged to think about building coalitions, developing networks and making lasting, mutually supportive connections.
Leadership is really tested when the environment is challenging or when there are no easy solutions. A leader’s ability to be heard and their courage to speak up are essential in this context. This day will look at how the tools of adaptive leadership could enhance the delegate’s performance and success, as well as enable them to reflect on the leader that they want to be in the future.
Your Future in HE is to serve as the ultimate day of development, providing ample opportunities for Aurorans to engage, network, and connect with one another in person. This includes meeting and catching up with their respective action learning set groups.
For this final session, delegates reconvene and host their own Action Learning Set group online, where they continue to support each other using the ALS process, further developing their communication and listening skills. They host this session themselves and it is with the same group they joined on Action Learning Set 1.