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Manon Kluijtmans - Vice-Rector Teaching & Learning – on LERU

Oxford, Cambridge, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Milan; just to name a few. Together with twenty-two other big leading research universities, Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� forms the League of European Research Universities (LERU). As a member of UU staff it’s almost impossible not to come across the term LERU every now and then. At the same time it is not unthinkable that you don’t exactly know what this network does. In a series of interviews we take a closer look at the role and ambitions UU has in and with the LERU.   

Today we talk about Teaching and Learning with: Manon Kluijtmans, Vice-Rector Teaching & Learning, Academic Director of the Centre for Academic Teaching and professor at the ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Medical Center Utrecht. In October Manon was host during a LERU Teaching & Learning Working Group meeting in Utrecht.

Who participates in the LERU Teaching & Learning Working Group and what is its function?

“All participants represent similar, research-intensive universities and are, on a strategic level, responsible for education; most as Vice-Rector. We look after quality and innovation and therefore all work on getting education high on the agenda. We discuss developments in education, exchange experiences, sometimes arrange practical things together, and we formulate vision and policy. This way, in LERU we plot a mutual course with which we can test and sharpen our own course.”

Do you have examples?

“During the previous meeting we raised the question of how to organise interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education. All LERU partners are working on that now, also because the nature of societal issues requires it. But this interdisciplinarity conflicts with the way we were once organised, with quite strong disciplinary columns, often set up along research lines. How do you turn that around?

We could now, for example, share that a Dean of Interdisciplinary Education has just been appointed in Utrecht. It's very interesting and useful to learn from each other, and to exchange with other universities how you can organise and support a development like this. After  a thorough inventory, this subject will be discussed more extensively during the next meeting.  

Another example of how we determine the course together is that in the past years we have written papers on how to improve diversity & inclusion. In Utrecht we can learn a lot from some other universities that have a very diverse student population.”

Are there also topics on which other LERU partners can learn a lot from us?

“What they certainly find impressive is that we have a faculty-transcending education community. I think we're also ahead of the curve when it comes to educational innovation. Especially in the field of : the way in which education is appreciated and the given possibilities to develop yourself in education. In Utrecht this is something we value a lot,  and so do other Dutch universities. Together we are real pioneers on this within LERU.”  

Wow! Do you really have joint time slots?!

What do partners specifically look at with extra interest?

“As early as the 1990s, we started with the ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Teaching Qualification (UTQ) in Utrecht and that didn’t become national for no reason: every Dutch lecturer comes across it now. This is something they are not familiar with abroad. In Utrecht we have built a very good infrastructure in which teachers can develop themselves. And this development doesn't stop after the first phase; we expressly provide education and inspiration all the way up to professorship.

Take the Teaching Fellowship Programme, the Educational Leadership Programme and the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund. These are great successes that our partners are very interested in. For instance, (London’s Global ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��) has adopted our Educational Leadership Programme in a modified form. Someone from the department of Educational Consultancy & Professional Development has helped to set up and guide it. Isn't it fantastic to exchange good practices this way?

The fact that people regularly look at us when it comes to for teacher development, is (in part) because Utrecht has a long-standing and consistent policy, and invests in it. A number of successive Rectors has shown: I'm here for research, but I'm definitely also here for education. That helps.

I also regularly hear how other universities are jealous of the Utrecht educational model. Because, although interdisciplinary education is still also difficult to organise in Utrecht, our students do in any case have minor space to look outside their programmes. We've gotten used to it by now, but many others say: ‘Wow! Do you really have joint time slots?!’.”

So it's primarily successes that are shared in the LERU Working Group?

“Definitely not just that. We also share worries and failures: from current dilemma’s to matters that turned out wrong. We discuss why some things turned out differently than we hoped and  how it could maybe be done differently. Because what was initially a failure can sometimes turn into a success later. There is an open, constructive atmosphere in the group and that's very valuable. It really feels like peers who want to help each other and not like competitors.”

The strength of collectivity helps us to move forward

Many LERU partners run into challenges similar to ours, but do you also see differences?

“Yes. Every university is organised in another way. Also countries have different culture, structure and laws to deal with. You see this reflected in, for example, data registration. In England, the minister requires universities to gather a lot of data on students' backgrounds. That hands them tools to properly monitor how those students are doing. In the Netherlands, we are more restricted when it comes to registering data and in France they are even more limited concerning registrating demographic data. So there are big differences there.

Furthermore, we really don't all think the same about everything. But the great thing is that, when you're doing things together, you do usually reach a joint general line. For instance, we are currently looking at how we evaluate education and why we do it this way. With the strength of collectively we are now releasing a statement with the message: make sure that student evaluations measure satisfaction, but are not translated directly to quality. Student satisfaction is very important, but isn't the same as the degree of quality of your education and lecturers. This shared vision helps us to address this topic in our own universities and move forward in quality assurance.”

In this series on Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��'s role in and ambitions with the League of European Research Universities, previously interviews were published with ,  and .

More information

Would you like to find out more about the LERU? Such as who the UU representatives are and what they are working on? Contact details and detailed reports of the working groups can be found on the (intranet) . Feel free to contact Jeroen Frietman, Senior Advisor International Affairs, with any questions you may have.