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“We need brokers who have one foot in research and the other in their professional field, since they can effectively connect these two worlds. This will beneficially impact society.” So states professor Manon Kluijtmans, who has been appointed since 1 December 2017 to the new chair of ‘Education to connect science and professional practice’. Her inaugural lecture, held on 15 February, was about educating these hybrid professionals.

“Be open to what you encounter, to new experiences. Be aware of, and don’t be afraid to sometimes break with, established habits and regularly taking a fresh look at your surroundings. For me, this is the perfect way to learn and to innovate, and I aim to challenge my students to do the same.” With these words, Manon Kluijtmans sets the tone of her speech, which examines the themes of innovation, boundary crossing  and connecting different fields. Her new chair is about educating two types of brokers: clinician-scientists, who combine care and research, and educator-scholars, who academic teachers who investigate their own teaching, or educator-scholars. “In both cases, there’s always a link between professional practice and academic research.”

Manon recounts how she started out as a researcher, with a strong interest in patient-oriented research. In the course of her academic career, her focus shifted increasingly towards educating clinician-scientists and to teacher development. As programme director of Clinical Health Sciences, she began her own education research, in close collaboration with educational scientists with the aim of improving educational practice.

Pi(п)-shaped professionals

She explains why specific expertise is essential for training dual professionals who combine science and professional practice. “In the Utrecht educational model, the objective is to train all students to be ‘T-shaped professionals’, with a strong knowledge base in one discipline, the stem of the T, but also an open attitude, broad knowledge and collaboration skills, represented by the arms of the T. Interprofessional collaboration is highly important, in the care sector and any other sector. However, to connect science and professional practice, having T-shaped professionals is not enough. To bridge the gap between these fields we actually need Pi(π)-shaped professionals, with one foot firmly in scientific research and the other in professional practice. This means not just education in both fields , but also, very importantly, paying explicit attention to the broker role. After all, even though a double degree provides you with two bases, but not necessarily with the spanning bridge between them.”

Clinician-scientists

UMC Utrecht devotes considerable attention to training clinician-scientists, Manon continues. “Consider the SUMMA programme: a Master’s in which students are trained both as doctor and researcher. Or the Clinical Health Sciences programme, where we train, among other specialities, nursing scientists and physiotherapy scientists to carry out research in their field and integrate this into professional practice. It’s a unique degree programme in the Netherlands.

From our research so far, we have learned  that clinician-scientists view being a broker as a clear third role, alongside that of being a clinician and a researcher. Being a broker isn’t easy, they often feel being pulled on by both sides. Yet, the huge added value of the clinician-scientists also became evident, both for clinical relevance of research and for innovation in health care. Therefore, Manon advocates that  organisations specifically support and value the broker role.”

Centre for Academic Teaching

Besides a better connection between research and practice in healthcare  in the function of clinician-scientist, Manon also wants to encourage the connection between research and professional practice in academic education. One of the ways she is doing this is through her role as scientific director of the Centre for Academic Teaching (CAT). This centre supports teacher professionalisation, educational innovation and educational scholarship. “Through CAT, we aim to create a structural bridge between professional practice and theory of academic education in order to provide optimum support for the learning process of students. And similarly to the health care field, next to T-shaped academic teachers able to collaborate with all sorts of experts in the field of education, we also need Pi-shaped educational scholars, combining academic teaching with education research in their field. These brokers are able to provide for new insights into their field of academic education, as well as systematic improvement of this education. I hope that, with my chair, I can contribute to the visibility and recognition of academic teachers who take on this bridging function between the education in their discipline and the educational sciences.”

Vice-rector of Teaching and Learning

During the inaugural lecture, the Rector Magnificus announced that Manon is being appointed vice-rector of Teaching and Learning as of March 1st. Based on this role, she will be able to further strengthen her own bridging function, not only between UMC Utrecht and Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��, but also between UU and other universities, both nationally and internationally.