AUAS receives major grants for innovation in education

A Leadership Fellowship has been awarded to Didi Griffioen, Professor of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. Two Senior Fellowships have been awarded to Margo Hartingsveldt and Mike de Kreek of the Faculties of Health and Applied Social Sciences and Law. The Teaching Fellowship has been awarded to Sjoukje Botman of Social Work (Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Law).

Comenius programme

The Comenius programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, which enables professionals in higher education to put their educational ideals and ideas into practice. To this end, the programme has three fellowship tiers for lecturers with different degrees of impact on education: Teaching Fellows, Senior Fellows and Leadership Fellows. The fellowships aim to have an impact at different levels, with the Leadership Fellowship focusing on innovation in one or more faculties or a complete institution.

Leadership Fellowship

The Leadership Fellowship, with a grant of €250,000, will benefit the development of a co-design procedure for lecturers, students and researchers at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. This will make it possible to further integrate research into education. This procedure should ensure that the functionality and the added value of research are clearly visible in the curriculum. Griffioen applied for the fellowship together with Katelijne Boerma (Sports and Nutrition), Paulien Spaas (Technology), Marlies Sandee (Business and Economics) and Jacqueline Kenkel (AUAS Academy).

“My ambition is to combine research, education and practice within and outside the AUAS in order to improve the learning experience for students. This grant will help me to support my AUAS colleagues in taking a step in the right direction” - Didi Griffioen

Read more about the project ‘To Create Tomorrow Together: Co-designing integrated curricula with lecturers, researchers and students’ on the professorship’s website.

Senior Fellowship

Thanks to the fellowship, and the grant of €100,000, programme manager Margo Hartingsveldt (Occupational Therapy) will have the opportunity to innovate within the Faculty of Health. As there are more and more vulnerable people with problems in multiple areas, healthcare professionals need to adapt. In order to prepare the professionals of the future – the students – for this, they need to be taught other competences in the area of cooperation and dealing with diversity.

Lecturer in Qualitative Research, Mike de Kreek (Social Work) has been awarded the Senior Fellowship to strengthen the link between education, practice and research in the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in Social Work. The graduation phase will be redesigned by shifting attention to change and professionalisation. The focus of the innovation will be on bringing practical experience into the programme and facilitating professional learning communities with Master’s alumni.

Teaching Fellowship

Sjoukje Botman (Social Work) has been awarded the Teaching Fellowship, with a grant of €50,000, to support the development of a new Bachelor’s programme. In the new programme, for the Bachelor’s programme in Social Work, doing research will be linked to innovative thinking and the development of skills. The emphasis will be on themes such as migration, cultural diversity and cross-border social issues.

This release was first published 18 April 2019 by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences