'Aurora is part of our gender equity strategy': Sir David Bell

Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Sir David Bell discusses how the Aurora programme plays a key part in the University of Sunderland’s strategy to create a ‘pipeline’ of women leaders.

Aurora is the Advance HE development programme for future female leaders in higher education. 

In a recent article for Advance HE, Sir David explains how the programme is supporting the University's equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) efforts and creating a cohort of women leaders who are more confident and more satisfied in their roles. 

“We don’t view Aurora as being all about promotion.  But it does reflect a commitment to professional and personal development that can sit well with promotion panels,” Sir David said. 

“For us, it’s predominantly about how women can get greater satisfaction from their roles and become better at them.

“It could be that that entails some women thinking about getting a new job, but for others it’s simply about the opportunity to broaden their experience, deepen their knowledge and make stronger connections. With that, we are all bound to benefit – as well as they themselves benefitting individually.”

You can read the full article on the Advance HE website.