“We join forces more and more for a good provision of education for professionals”
“The developments in society AND science are progressing rapidly, knowledge is outdated much faster than before and that is why universities have to provide possibilities for graduates, for professionals working in practice, to stay up to date.” So said Rector Magnificus of Utrecht ľϸӰ Henk Kummeling in his Dies Natalis Speech of the past year. Why is education for professionals so important? And how does Utrecht ľϸӰ meet this demand? A conversation on Life Long Learning with our Rector Magnificus.
You said at the time that you have the ambition to educate students not only for their first jobs, but also for their sixth jobs?
“I indeed repeated what former Harvard President Drew Faust said, because I also believe that a university should provide the right skills and mindset with which students can strive for multiple careers. The mistake I think is often made, also in political The Hague, is the belief that we should educate for the first step after the education, for the immediate professional practice. That doesn't fit the university. It's much more about providing in a certain analytical level.
As knowledge is becoming outdated much faster these days, we also see that people want to continue learning more often after obtaining their first degrees. And that means that besides knowledge, it's very much about (reflecting on) the skills they need in order to make the next step. Or to be able to function better in the new step they made. We know so much more about good leadership these days, on how to guide an organisation, than we knew in the past.
The right skills and mindset to strive for multiple careers.
Very many people ultimately end up in fields of employment that have only little in common with the disciplines they were once educated in. They are at the head of companies and entire departments of government institutions. Then, they are suddenly no longer the historians or linguists they were once educated to be, but those who have to be able to lead. They of course received a basic set of skills once, but they want to become better and then often return to the university for education for professionals.”
Have you had multiple careers yourself? Or would you like to?
“I studied Law in Nijmegen myself, where I subsequently obtained my PhD. I once started in Tilburg as a Professor of State and Governance Law and have, before I became Dean of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance there, also taught at Utrecht ľϸӰ. I’m currently still appointed in Cape Town at the ľϸӰ of the Western Cape, where I work with colleagues on all kinds of issues that are related to what local governance contributes to the development of a country.
Connected to the world around us.
Parallel to my academic career, I've always done things that have something to do with practice. For instance, I spent almost ten years as a (substitute) judge and twelve years as President of the Electoral Council, which is an advisory body to government and parliament. I just quit the presidency of the Objections Commission of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. That's the club where people can go to when they have objections to decisions made by the minister. Such as doctors who were taken out of the BIG registry, but also restaurants which were fined because there were mice in the kitchen.
The fact that I did those various things at the same time had a very positive effect on the way in which I could provide education. That's because you'll always have some juicy examples for students.”
Which concrete steps emerged from the Dies dialogue?
“There are quite some concrete steps that emerged from the Dies dialogue. Of course, these kinds of initiatives often only lead to visible results in the long term. That's why it's beautiful to see that in this case, we see a clear effect in terms of concrete requests from Defence and police, concrete requests for future meetings from the region and corporations, as well as future meetings with professional associations.
Maybe one of the most important results is the intensifying of the meetings between various faculties on the connection with the world around us. How are we going to take our knowledge on social issues to where it's needed and desired? At the same time, that growing interest also makes it clear that we currently can't always meet the demand.”
Better view of what's going on in practice.
What kind of societal contribution does the university make by providing education for professionals?
“One of the aspects of Life Long Learning I think is fascinating, is the two-sidedness and reciprocity of it. On the one hand, we bring much knowledge to society as a university by educating people. This way, we realise impact by means of education because we know that a well-educated population eventually leads to greater well-being in a country. At the same time, we have better insight in what's going on in practice because professionals who work in practice enrol in our degree programmes. That knowledge is valuable to us as a university in order to fine-tune our education and research.”
Does the government recognise that societal role of the university?
“We've always spoken out in favour of a voucher system in which people have some sort of ‘backpack’ that they can use themselves to get education or additional education throughout their lives. That now seems to take more shape on the part of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The government will then no longer determine what you can or can't study, the institutions and corporations will no longer think only from the perspective of supply, but the questions from civilians and what they want to be educated in take centre stage for supply. Until now, degree programmes for professionals were predominantly provided by private enterprises.
More space for the provision of separate courses, instead of only complete university degree programmes.
As a university, we ― as one of the first ― started with providing degree programmes for professionals, especially at the School of Governance. We in Utrecht are very happy with that, but it was always a sensitive issue in the Netherlands because the funding of these degree programmes must be well separated from the government funding. We are now slowly coming into a phase where the government also starts to believe it's logical for mbo, hbo and other universities to provide degree programmes for professionals. That also offers more space for the provision of separate courses, instead of only complete university degree programmes.”
As of 1 May, Utrecht ľϸӰ has a special website for professionals. Which other steps is UU going to take after this?
“I like it that we join forces more and more for a good provision of degree programmes for professionals. Besides that new website for professionals, we're investigating with HU ľϸӰ of Applied Sciences Utrecht whether or not we can show as a region what we have to offer. We are the highest educated city in the Netherlands. 56 percent of the Utrecht residents have either hbo or university degrees. In other cities, that is no more than a quarter of the residents. Many people stay here after their education because besides much higher education, there is also much work. People with university degrees then discover at work that they're lacking a practical base, while hbo graduates notice that they don't have enough research skills. Then it's a good thing that we as institutions join forces to show in one glance what we can offer these professionals. The collaboration already exists, but we can do much more with it for the outside world.”
Does education for Life Long Learning belong in lecturers' normal job responsibilities?
“We have ascertained that if you want to be able to provide good education for professionals, you need to give lecturers more space for that in their job responsibilities. It has to be just as much a part of someone's job as providing education to Bachelor's and Master's students. Especially now that the government recognises this public task more and more.
Until recently, it was primarily the School of Governance that provided space for that. Lecturers over there have already been allowed to spend time on courses for professionals for years and years. That turns out to work very well. By making it a real part of the job responsibilities, it doesn't result in additional pressure at work but it also turns out to be a fun part of work. That's also how I've always experienced it. For instance, I've taught courses at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. In that regard, we didn't make Wieger Bakker Dean Life Long Learning for nothing. His experience at the School of Governance has given him many good ideas on what works.”
'We are an important driving force behind the development of Life Long Learning.
How does profiling on Life Long Learning contribute to our reputation?
“This enables us to put ourselves on the map in two ways. First, we show that we want to be socially relevant. And second, we also really want to show how good we are in what we do. By continuing to stand in the middle of society in as many ways as possible, we can constantly make our quality visible.”
We are reaching the limits in terms of our buildings. Is something going to be done about that?
“Yes, we are currently working on a large-scale housing plan. That's coming into effect now. In it, we are taking into account that professionals desire other education buildings than young students. But in general, we want to keep our buildings and education facilities multifunctional.”
What is unique to the approach of UU in the field of Life Long Learning?
“In the Netherlands, we've been talking about Life Long Learning for twenty or thirty years already. In many universities, it just fails to launch. Our unique approach is that we just do it. In meetings of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands, there are occasionally universities that ― mostly due to lack of experience ― argue in favour of leaving education for professionals completely to the Open ľϸӰ.
What is unique about Utrecht ľϸӰ is that we've been believing in it for longer and have already actually been doing it for some time. That started with a number of pockets such as USBO, Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. These are doing very well, by the way. We've since set up a professional organisation to expand that to the entire university. It's for a reason that administrators of other universities continuously question our people from Life Long Learning on how we handle this. This makes us an important driving force behind the development.”
Would you like to know more about Education for Professionals? If so, please visit the Home Page Life Long Learning and check out our range of post-initial education. Executive education Law, Economics and Governance offers a wide range of executive programmes in addition to your work. View the programmes.