Aurora: guidance for institutions
Overview
Aurora aims to enable a wide range of women in academic and professional roles to think of themselves
as future leaders and to develop leadership skills and strategies. Aurora takes a partnership approach
with institutions and participants, providing an intervention that combines education, mentoring and selfdirected study to provide learning with a more enduring impact.
To succeed and build a wide network of women interested in leadership and management as a route to
career progression, Aurora will need the support of universities and higher education colleges to deliver
the full experience and opportunity to participants. The role of institutions will be to build upon the broad
programme and networking experience of the Aurora delivery days with local support via mentors, role
models and an ‘Aurora champion’.
Aurora champion
We would like each institution to nominate an in-house ‘Aurora Champion’ who will help identify
participants, mentors and role models and be the main point of contact between the Leadership
Foundation and the institution.
The champion will be the face of Aurora in institutions. This role should be filled by a person (female or
male) with sufficient seniority, influence and interest in the issues facing women in higher education to
have credibility with the participants. A recognised commitment to help colleagues to develop their
careers will also be beneficial.
The Aurora Champion will:
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Help to identify and select participants.
Brief the participant on Aurora and the commitment expected.
Ensure that there is a mentor (male or female) for each participant.
Support the mentors and participants at their institution.
Identify role models from within the institution who will attend one or more events and host a
table of 8 to 10 participants.
Ensure all delegates receive Aurora event details.
Support the participants in using their new skills.
Provide opportunities for Aurora participants to share their experience and learning.
It is recognised that some institutions may prefer to spread this role between two people – one as the
key figurehead for Aurora and one as the liaison point for the administrative details. This is perfectly
acceptable – please provide the contact details of both individuals involved on the Aurora Champion form
to be completed and returned to [email protected]
Mentors
Each participant will require a mentor for support and to provide guidance within her institution. Mentors
can be female or male, as this will reflect needs of the Aurora participants.
Mentors will:
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Be considered successful in their careers.
Be knowledgeable and experienced in their organisation and understand its culture.
Have the endorsement of their Aurora champion.
Have sufficient general HE experience to be able to offer advice and support.
Be a good listener.
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Have a genuine interest in helping women to develop their careers and particularly support
their mentee.
Have sufficient time available to work with the mentee.
Have a supportive or ‘coaching style’ of communication.
Your institution may already have a mentoring scheme in place that could be extended to include Aurora
participants. If mentoring is new to your institution, here are a few points to consider:
Mentoring is a process of developing a working relationship between two people, where one of the pair is
an experienced person working with a less experienced person to help that individual to develop
expertise, knowledge and confidence. A mentor will help another person to learn and to change. An
experienced mentor will help a mentee identify their strengths and potential and act as sounding board.
When a mentoring relationship goes well, the mentor will equally benefit from the process of mentoring
by developing their own motivating and empowering skills. The mentee will benefit from having one-toone time with an experienced colleague who is willing to give some of their time to provide guidance and
advice and, importantly, to ask open questions to develop the mentee’s self-reflection, self-reliance and
problem solving skills
Mentoring arrangements may be formal or informal. They should be for a fixed period of time, although
this will vary with individuals. Given the fixed term nature, thought and planning should be given to the
start of the relationship, the main processes of the mentoring relationship and, importantly, the ending of
the mentoring relationship.
Other points to note about mentoring:
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In general, line managers should not mentor their own staff but should be supportive of the
process.
Mentoring relationships work best when both parties have had some involvement in the
selection/matching process.
Mentors should have good listening skills and also be able to provide objective, constructive
feedback.
Mentors should be honest and non-judgemental.
There is a wealth of information and guidance on mentoring on the internet. Included is a useful
open source link providing a range of advice and resources around mentoring
www.coachingnetwork.org.uk
If you would like more advice on this from the Leadership Foundation, please email
[email protected]
Role models
A key part of the Aurora experience will be for participants to have contact with successful women in
higher education with the values and characteristics that provide a positive role model for all involved
with Aurora. Institutions are invited to nominate women to fill this role for the delivery days of the
programme. We are looking for diversity, success at balancing work and life, from both academic
and professional services, and also women who may be senior and working in job shares or
part time
Role Models will:
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Be female.
Be considered highly successful in their job and in understanding their organisation and its
culture.
Have the endorsement of their Aurora champion.
Attend one or more events and host a table of 8 to 10 delegates.
Share their experiences.
Be genuinely interested in helping others and especially women to develop their careers.
Role models, we believe have a common set of traits and characteristics, as follows:
They are emotionally intelligent, ie they will have a good understanding of themselves and their strengths
and know which characteristics they would wish others to emulate. They are tuned in to and have an
understanding of their own weaknesses and work towards minimising them. Role models endeavour to
make positive choices for themselves and have a strong awareness of the example they set to others.
There is much information and guidance on role models online. The Leadership Foundation is happy to
give advice and support about this, email [email protected]
Aurora participants
There are a number of expectations of participants.
They will be:
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Committed to the full Aurora process, attending all four delivery days plus the action learning set
day and be prepared to undertake some self-directed study.
Ready to embrace the mentoring relationship, and actively work with their mentors to address
their personal development and build their self-reliance.
Committed to a career in higher education and prepared to devote some time to thinking about
and planning their career.
Willing to host an action learning set day at their institution, with the support of their institution.
Prepared to embrace the extensive networking opportunities and participate fully in Aurora.
Willing to undertake projects or assignments for their institution in order to build on their
developing leadership skills.
Prepared to participate in a longitudinal study to gauge the effectiveness of Aurora.
Willing to act as mentors or role models to future participants.
Aurora mailing list
The Aurora jisc list has been set up to open up discussion and debate about the issues facing women
leaders in higher education. Anyone involved in Aurora can join the Aurora jisc list. Details on how to join
the jisc list can be found on the Aurora section of the Leadership Foundation website
www.lfhe.ac.uk/aurora
Contact the Aurora team
Kathy McCabe
Associate
[email protected]
T: 07775 605080
Melissa Scuteri
Programme Development Manager
[email protected]
T: 020 3468 4826
Ginnie Willis
Programme Director
[email protected]
T: 017 8643 0328 / 07885 8983