From 19 to 22 May 2025, representatives of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice attended the Aurora Annual Conference 2025, which took place at the Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) in France. The conference brought together academics, students, experts and leaders from member universities of the Aurora Alliance to discuss the future of higher education, research, sustainability, and social impact.
The university was represented by doc. Ing. Silvia Ručinská, PhD., Vice-Rector for Internationalization, and prof. PaedDr. Martin Pekár, PhD. from the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ in Košice, as coordinator of Activity 8.2 – Internationalization at home. During the conference, the Vice-Rector gave a presentation on the activities of UPJŠ in the Aurora Alliance, in which she presented the position of the Aurora Alliance in the strategic management of the university as well as specific activities of the university implemented since the beginning of UPJŠ’s membership in the Aurora Alliance.
Student representatives Simona Gibalová (Faculty of Medicine, UPJŠ) and Ing. Michaela Lukačínová (Faculty of Public Administration, UPJŠ) participated as members of the Aurora Student Council. Simona Gibalová also spoke during the plenary session on the topic of “Empowering Voices: Advocating for Students’ Rights Across Europe” and subsequently participated in a roundtable discussion on the topic of “University of Tomorrow”.
UPJŠ representatives were also active in other sections of the conference, including:
- workshops on microcredits, COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) and joint study programmes,
- meetings of vice-rectors of member universities,
- and a student section dedicated to strengthening the voice of students within the Alliance.
Participation in the conference was an important opportunity to exchange experiences, establish new partnerships, explore possibilities for joint study programmes at UPJŠ, and strengthen UPJŠ’s position within the Aurora Alliance.
