Principal Fellows
To actively involve Senior Fellows in the Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning after completing the programme, they can be appointed as Principal Fellow. The appointment is for a period of three years, with the possibility of renewal. A Principal Fellow is an active candidate, takes initiatives or can be approached for a role in committees, SIGs or educational innovation projects of the CAT or Utrecht University in the broadest sense. For example, for the organisation of the Onderwijsparade, SoTL conference, USO assessment committee, jury of teacher awards or the SIGs of the Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning.
After completing the Senior Fellow-programme the following people have been named Principal Fellow, Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning:
Harold Bok
Dr. Harold Bok is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The ambition to improve the quality of education forms the basis of his activities in research, teaching, leadership and organisation. He has inspired many colleagues in his faculty, has held various academic roles and positions and leads several broad innovation projects. With his project he wants to explore innovative methods to optimise the synergy between learning and assessment within an educational culture focused on improving competences.
Niels Bovenschen
Synergy in Research‐based Education
Niels’ ambition is to engage students in science by creating synergy between education and scientific research already at the early undergraduate level. Niels: “I aim to convert my vision into a university‐wide strategic plan, coinciding with the development of novel didactic concepts, tools, and best‐practices.”
Vincent Crone
Successful interdisciplinary, international, intercultural and blended education requires intensive collaboration and knowledge-sharing among teaching staff. My project aims to create a lecturer community within the Faculty of Humanities in order to pool the knowledge and experience of teaching as well as the use of educational innovation, in addition to offering supervision and training for lecturers.
Gönül Dilaver
Gönül Dilaver is associate professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and submitted a proposal to take diversity within the course further, beyond fixing the number of students with a diverse background.
Mariëtte van den Hoven
Mariëtte van den Hoven is associate professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and involved with the Research Institute for Philosophy and Religious Studies. With her project she will contribute to scientific ethics in education.
Annet van Royen-Kerkhof
Dr. Annet van Royen-Kerkhof works as a paediatrician-immunologist at the WKZ/UMCU and training coordinator of the medical research master SUMMA. The social issues facing us and the next generation are complex. Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for thinking about potential solutions. The solutions are not unambiguous, which will create uncertainty. In her project, Annet wants to teach students to deal with these uncertainties by working together with different faculties on a complex problem.
Christel Lutz
In response to the demands of a changing society, educational programs must adjust. But a curriculum revision is usually a top-down exercise, carried out every six years or so. A dynamic curriculum development approach that combines the expertise of all faculty members can produce agile and top quality programs. Besides organizational change, it also requires addressing the way in which faculty support is organized. Christel believes that curriculum innovation and faculty development should go hand in hand.
Irma Meijerman
I want to introduce lecturers to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as an impetus to approach their own teaching methods, innovations and student learning, as a form of "research". The SoTL principles offer potential for improving education and for enhancing the experience and joy of teaching for lecturers themselves. Building lecturer communities is central to my project. In addition, working with Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning and other Senior Fellows should open up more opportunities to foster lecturer development.
Karin Rebel
Karin Rebel is associate professor of Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Geosciences and is involved with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. With her project she will contribute to an interuniversity collaboration in education. As opposed to the research domain, within the field of education there are very few interdisciplinary programmes in which universities collaborate.
Veronique Schutjens
Busy schedules mean that students often don't get the chance to assimilate the experience of studying abroad in full, while others never have any international exposure at all. So we're losing out at two levels. I want to teach Bachelor's exchange students to reflect on the significance of their international experiences, both for them personally and in terms of their employability skills, as well as to embed those learning experiences and effects in our programmes so other students also benefit.
Maarten van der Smagt
Maarten is interested in how scientific bachelor programmes with a strong professional orientation can still offer their students a broad scientific education. Maarten: “Once students develop a critical mind-set, they will be better equipped to complete their studies and to become qualified professionals”. Maarten is director of education at the Psychology department. Here he investigates what both society and students need in the long term, and how the department of Psychology can accommodate these needs in the future.
Bald de Vries
Dr. Bald de Vries wants to challenge students to acquire knowledge and insight outside the context of their own study programme in order to get a better grip on the interdisciplinary dimension and the social relevance of a study programme. What is it like to be a lawyer or economist, a geographer or a veterinarian and how do they relate to other professionals?
Leoniek Wijngaards
The best education takes place in settings where not everyone is alike. Differences in backgrounds and ways of looking at things can enrich education. I'm going to explore how we can improve teaching through a more diverse and inclusive culture. For instance, how can we attract more students from under-represented groups? I also want to collaborate with projects at other faculties and universities, because working together may enable us to accomplish even more.