Programme update

An update regarding the sponsorship of the Aurora programme.

The University's current plan is to continue offering Aurora on a bi-annual basis within the University’s leadership development portfolio. Following the 2025/26 cohort, 2026/27 is not designated as an allocated Aurora year. This approach will allow us to continue to review our leadership development provision to ensure it meets the evolving needs of colleagues across the Institution.

The programme

Aurora is for women, in grades 7 to 9 in the Education and Research job family and grades 6 to 8 in other job families, who would like to develop the leadership side of their careers.

Aurora is Advance HE's leadership development initiative for women. Since its launch in 2013, more than 15,000 women from over 200 different institutions across the UK and Republic of Ireland have participated in Aurora.

It is run as a unique partnership bringing together leadership experts, higher education providers and research institutes to take positive action to address the under-representation of women in leadership positions in the sector.

The programme is led by a team of leadership experts and participants will explore four key areas associated with leadership success: Identity, Impact & Voice, Core Leadership, Politics & Influence and Adaptive Leadership Skills. This is in addition to action learning sets.

The programme is a mix of development days and action learning sets and participants will be supported by mentors from the University. The programme is online, with a face-to-face event and cohorts will be formed from institutions across a geographical region in order to build the networks that have been a valuable feature of the face-to-face events.

Participants will be asked to:

Attend the introduction session which will introduce the aims and objectives of Aurora
Attend each of the four development days, the two action learning set days and the final in-person development day
Undertake self-directed learning throughout Aurora, aligned with development interests
Commit to working with a mentor, found by delegates with the support of their institution
Be prepared to access leadership opportunities and champion for change

Find out more about the Aurora programme.

In addition to Aurora, the University is working with staff network groups to identify alternative development options to sit alongside our existing People Management Curriculum workshops and leadership development programmes.

Feedback from our Aurora community has highlighted how valuable the community aspect of the programme and the networks we have here at the university is. Particular networks to draw your attention to are:

Please also browse the content on The Development Toolkit where you can access online resources to support your professional and personal development. There is also our coaching service for staff which you may find to be a suitable approach to help you address your career development.