Aurora Leadership Development programme promotional graphic.

Aurora Leadership Development 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.

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 what other past participants had to say.  

DCU's Aurora Champion is Prof Anne Sinnott, Deputy President and the DCU Aurora Adviser is Lorna Greene from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) unit.

Target Audience: Women who are in the early stages of their career and wish to develop strong leadership skills.  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.

Aurora consists of four development days and two action learning sets.  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

Places are limited and applications must be endorsed by Head of School/Unit. Programme participation cost is £1025 and is payable by your School/Unit. 

All elements of the 2023/2024 Aurora Programme will be delivered on-line via zoom.

The following are the dates for each session.  

DCU Welcome Session (with Deputy President, Anne Sinnott) 7th March 2024 (11am - 12noon)
Intro Webinar  13th March 2024 (10am - 12.30pm)
Development Day 1: Identity, Impact and Voice 20th March 2024 (10am - 3pm)
Development Day 2: Core Leadership 19th April 2024 (10am - 3pm)
Action Learning Set 1  1st May 2024 (10am - 3pm)
Development Day 3: Politics and Influence 24th May 2024 (10am - 3pm)
Development Day 4: Adaptive Leadership Skills 13th June 2024 (10am - 3pm)
Action Learning Set 2 18th July 2024 (10am - 3pm)

Application Process

Applications for 2024 are open! Apply now