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Striking teachers and teacher shortages raise the question: does our society really appreciate education as much as it should? This question is also extremely relevant at the university. The pathway to a professorship used to be paved with research publications and successful grant applications. Teaching was something you did on the side. That has all changed. Slowly but surely, the academic world is shifting its focus to education, and Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� has been at the vanguard of this process. We're coming to realise that universities' greatest contribution to a better world may well be the students we educate. However, the struggle is still far from over. ‘When I was appointed senior fellow , I remember my colleagues telling me: “Make sure you don't get boxed in by that teaching profile.” Well actually, I want to be known for teaching.’

You can hear a pin drop in the lecture room. Third-year Biomedical Sciences students are hanging on Wouter's every word. Ten years ago, Wouter was a student himself. One day, he had a heart attack during hockey practice. Thankfully, medics managed to reanimate him. He was diagnosed with PLN, a hereditary heart muscle disease. He currently has a ventricular assist device, a mechanical pump that supports the function of his left ventricle, and is on the waiting list for a donor heart.

I get my students to work on actual problems facing real people

Wouter's story makes a deep impression on the students. That's exactly the point, explains lecturer Niels Bovenschen, who invited Wouter. ‘I get my students to work on actual problems facing real people. The students get all the available information on the patient, and split up into sixteen groups to develop research proposals. The best proposal is then carried out by fellow students in the lab as part of a subsequent course. As it turns out, this type of challenge-based education yields incredible results. The students become highly motivated, and the participating doctors and researchers are extremely impressed by their ideas.’

Cross pollination

As Bovenschen explains, this type of education yields a perfect cross-pollination of socially-relevant education and research. ‘We're doing new research and our students are adding a fresh perspective. It's good for patients, and it's improving our education.’ Bovenschen can back up the latter statement with facts: he assesses the didactic effects of his teaching methods. ‘I'm a senior fellow’, he explains. ‘It's a specific type of career-track that prepares you for a professorship with a focus on teaching. Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� is the first institution to introduce senior fellowships.’ In concrete terms, this means Bovenschen has two days a week to focus on educational innovations and didactics.

‘It's a wonderful opportunity. You get to focus your curiosity on education itself. I have a background in biomedical research, where you work in wet labs with cell cultures, proteins and DNA. I've always felt a strong connection to both research and education, but I was never interested in research on education. That involves working with statistics, focus groups, questionnaires, quotes. It's just a different world. I must say I was sceptical at first. I wasn't quite sure this actually qualified as research. I'm a true believer now, though.’ It certainly shows. Bovenschen published an article on his educational concept in Nature Biotechnology, and was nominated for the title of Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��'s Lecturer of the Year by his students. He ultimately won the award in March of 2019.

Balance

Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� is a pioneer in the field of educational innovation. It was one of the first universities to significantly invest in its lecturers in the early nineteen nineties. And with good reason: the balance between education and research had become disrupted. Academic research had been increasingly prioritised since the nineteen seventies, partly as a result of government policies. This development coincided with the massification of education. The ultimate result was poor student assessments, critical external education reviews and a group of dissatisfied lecturers. Time for change, in other words.

Teaching is a team sport

As a part of the effort to reverse these developments, UU became the first Dutch university to introduce a ‘Basic Teaching Qualification’ and ‘Senior Teaching Qualification’ with quantifiable quality requirements in 1995. It seems hard to imagine now, but you only needed a basic research qualification (PhD) to get a permanent appointment up until then.

The university also introduced awards for outstanding lecturers, and 1999 saw the launch of the Centre of Excellence in ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Teaching. This new facility ultimately evolved into a breeding ground for talented educators. In 2001, the university seized upon the introduction of the Bachelor's-Master's model to develop its characteristic teaching model based around small-scale, personalised, empowering teaching methods. UU adjusted its professor policy in 2004 in an effort to offer more balanced career options: from that point onwards, the university started offering professorships with a focus on education rather than research, although every professor is obviously expected to be active in both areas. UU subsequently developed a preparatory career track, a platform enabling lecturers to exchange knowledge and experiences (TAUU) and an annual two-million euro grant programme for research on educational innovation. As of 2017, all knowledge and expertise developed for and by our lecturers has been incorporated in a single centre: the Centre for Academic Teaching (CAT) headed by director and Vice Rector of education Manon Kluijtmans.

Kluijtmans: ‘We're working to achieve a shift in our organisational culture so that teaching gets the recognition and appreciation it deserves. Under this new model, education will be supported and developed by our academics in close collaboration with students, colleagues from various disciplines, the professional field, support staff and educational experts. After all, teaching is a team sport.’

Willingness to change

‘We shouldn't be imposing educational reforms from the top down. That would only be counterproductive’, Mabelle Hernández explains. Hernández works as a programme manager at Educate-it, a programme that has been helping lecturers use IT tools and develop or adapt their existing education to blended learning formats since 2014. ‘We applied the knowledge developed by our colleagues at Organisational Studies. They recently conducted a longitudinal study on lecturers' willingness to change on behalf of Educate-it, which identified perceived autonomy as a key factor. Lecturers retain ownership of their own education at all times. And that works!’

Educate-it applies the innovation model developed by Rogers. ‘We initially focused on the innovators and early adopters that simply love to innovate and need room to experiment.’ Educate-it assesses all new educational innovations to determine their added value for educational quality. Teaching tools with proven effectiveness are introduced throughout the UU organisation. ‘Next, we shifted our attention to the early and late majority. In their case, we focused on demonstrating that the model works, and – more importantly – is easy to use. Lecturers are mainly inspired by the experiences of their colleagues. Things are moving quickly now. Just take the example of digital testing: five years ago, most lecturers hadn't heard of the method and we were getting a lot of resistance. In the past year, over 60% of all tests were administered in digital format.’

Proud

‘I'm incredibly proud of the fact that UU has chosen to put the spotlight on education’, Leoniek Wijngaards-de Meij enthuses, ‘that's certainly not always the case.’ Wijngaards-de Meij was amongst the second wave of senior fellows, and has been serving as professor with a focus on education and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences since August of 2019. ‘I remember I was at UCL in London. A colleague told me: “Over here, lecturer awards are a kiss of death for your career. Everyone will start to think: they're probably no good at research.” That's the academic world we live in.’

In some cases, those prejudices remain unspoken, as Wijngaards-de Meij explains. However, they suddenly prove very real when – for example – staff with a teaching profile find they've been overlooked for an Associate Professorship. She is ‘incredibly proud’ that Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� is working to change that situation. ‘Still’, she immediately adds, ‘that doesn't mean education and research are valued equally here. There's still a lot of work to be done. How can I tell? Although many of my colleagues were enthusiastic when I became a senior fellow, professors from various faculties also expressed their doubts to me. They asked whether I was sure I was making the right choice. After all, they said, I was good enough to secure a professorship by sticking to the beaten path. I remember someone saying: “Congratulations, but make sure you don't get boxed in by that teaching profile.” Well actually, I want to be known for teaching.’

‘We need to make sure research and education are genuinely equal and fully integrated. If we can do that, we'll be truly advancing science and optimally preparing future generations for their role in society. Along with research, education forms the core of our academic identity. What's more, effective teaching is both challenging and extremely rewarding. To be honest, it's kind of absurd when people feel the need to warn you that a teaching profile might harm your career. We need to work together to change those perceptions. It also ties in neatly with the national and international debate on acknowledgement and valuation within universities. I look forward to leading the vanguard with Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��.’

Professor Laurens Voesenek studied Plant Ecophysiology at Radboud ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Nijmegen and obtained his doctorate with a thesis entitled ‘Adaptations of Rumex in flooding gradients’. He has served as professor of Plant Ecophysiology at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� since 1999. Voesenek serves as vice-dean of the Faculty of Science and as chair of the Future Food hub

This story appeared in alumni magazine Illuster.