Aurora is Advance HE's leadership development initiative for women. It is run as a unique partnership bringing together leadership experts and higher education institutions to take positive action to address the under-representation of women in leadership positions in the sector. Since its launch in 2013 nearly 10,000 women from nearly 200 different institutions across the UK and Ireland have participated in the programme.
Dr Mónica Chávez Muñoz spoke to us about her experience of the programme, and how it made her aware of the different challenges leaders in higher education face on a daily basis. She said:
“I gained an extensive knowledge of the challenges of colleagues, which really helped me, and of course the leadership skills. I’d say that the biggest takeaway from the Aurora programme, was to understand that we have internal and external barriers to leadership and what I could gather from all the conversations and content from the fantastic presenters was, often it is not our internal barriers but external barriers [that are hardest to overcome].
“However, being a leader and developing your leadership skills, means that you are able to influence those external barriers.”
She also spoke about the networking opportunities being one of the biggest benefits to going on the programme: “The biggest benefits for me personally have been the network I have built. Fantastic women, amazing women across the North West that I wouldn’t have had the invaluable [opportunity to meet].”
Watch the full conversation with Mónica below:
Aurora 2021-22
Aurora is Advance HE's leadership development initiative for women. It is run as a unique partnership bringing together leadership experts and higher education institutions to take positive action to address the under-representation of women in leadership positions in the sector.