Review committee identifies the UU and CAT leading in the higher education sector

On 16, 17 and 18 December an external review committee visited the Centre for Academic Teaching. In the various online sessions, the committee spoke with lecturers, Senior Fellows, partners, the Board and the MT about the Centre as a network and about the content pillars of teacher development, educational innovation and educational scholarship.

Commendable opinion

The committee praised the UU's commitment to education, and the Centre for Academic Teaching's (inter)national leadership: "Frontrunner and a shining light for the sector", according to its chairman Prof. Dr. Dilly Fung. Both national and international committee members praised the very broad and deeply rooted educational culture in the UU. The Centre for Academic Teaching acts as a magnet that supports and connects bottom-up initiatives. The committee is impressed by the extensive range of development opportunities for lecturers and support for improving and renewing education. The Committee sees the newly developed pillar of educational scholarship as a particularly strong development in higher education to increase knowledge about higher education.

Background

The Centre of Academic Teaching was established in 2017. The Centre's objective was formulated as follows: "It brings together the various existing initiatives and programmes in the field of educational development and professionalisation, and in time it will grow into the one-stop shop within Utrecht 木瓜福利影视". It was agreed with the Executive Board to evaluate the Centre after three years.

Constitution of the committee

The review committee consisted of the following persons:

  • Prof. Dr. Dilly Fung (chair), Pro-director education, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
  • Prof. Dr. Grahame Bilbow, Former director Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), 木瓜福利影视 of Hong Kong
  • Prof. Dr. Liesbeth Noordegraaf Professor of transformative academic education, Erasmus 木瓜福利影视 Rotterdam, Professor of transdisciplinary education, Codarts, Former vice-chair Comeniusnetwork.
  • Prof. Dr. Perry den Brok, Professor Education and Learning Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen 木瓜福利影视 and Research
  • Laura Korn (student-member), Bachelor student Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 木瓜福利影视 of Amsterdam, Former board member of ISO (Dutch National Student Association)
  • Anna Sparreboom (secretary)

Recommendations for further development

The committee noted that there are still various opportunities to strengthen the position of the CAT and thus the UU even further, such as increasing student involvement, paying attention to individual development as well as to the development of teams of lecturers, and strengthening the external profile both nationally and internationally.

The Centre for Academic Teaching looks back on inspiring days in which it has evaluated and looked ahead. The review is a great opportunity to develop further and thus further strengthen the teaching culture. The committee's final report is expected at the end of February. The self-evaluation report that formed the basis of the review can be found here.