AU Today - Academics

Academic stories
graduate education student in meeting
January 5, 2024

The nationwide teacher shortage has been making headline news for the past several years. In Illinois, there were over 7,100 unfilled positions at the start of the 2023 school year, including almost 50 open positions for principals and assistant principals across the state.1 In response,...

Noyce Scholars
December 20, 2023

Aurora University named its inaugural cohort of Noyce Scholars—10 students who are studying to become math and science teachers for middle schools and high schools in high-need school districts. The National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program supports students...

Education Student in Classroom
October 16, 2023

In an effort to help address the school leader shortage in Illinois, Aurora University launched the Alternative Principal Endorsement program in fall 2023. The program allows educators with a master’s degree to earn their principal endorsement in just one year through a unique...

student using an adaptive bike
August 31, 2023

Pre-occupational therapy is a mouthful. But it’s actually a pretty easy-to-explain pathway to becoming an occupational therapist. First, let’s talk about what it means to be an occupational therapist.  What is occupational therapy? Occupational therapy is a kind of...

Dentist
June 26, 2023

Dental care is crucial to the role of overall health and wellness. How hard is it to become a dentist? And should you become one? It takes eight years of schooling for most people to become a dentist — four years of undergraduate school and another four for dental school. All that...