Senior Fellows
The Senior Fellow Programme was developed by Utrecht University with the aim of strengthening educational leadership. Those who successfully complete the programme are nominated for a professorial position with a special teaching remit, and will be named Principal Fellow, Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning.
The following Senior Fellows are currently taking part in the programme at the Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning:
Liesbeth Bijlsma
Liesbeth already showed great talent as an informal leader in educational renewal and innovation. With her project 'Scaling-up inquiry-based learning (IBL), she aims to implement IBL in large knowledge-driven curricula to support students in the development of critical thinking skills, which will help then to make evidence-informed (clinical) choices in their later professional roles. The project links well to the strategic goals of Utrecht University and can be useful to other parts of the university, especially to programmes that tie strongly to academic professional roles.
Matthieu Brinkhuis
Dr. Matthieu Brinkhuis is well recognized as an expert in learning analytics and evaluation and has a proven track record in key positions in education at his faculty, such as degree director of the Applied Data Science Master Programme and director of education for Continuing Education within the Graduate School of Natural Science. With his project on Continuing Education (CE) he wants to explore how to create joint programmes with societal partners, moving from CE for professionals, to CE with professionals.
Theo van Haeften
Dr.ir. Theo van Haeften is associate professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He wants to implement progress testing, as part of a new longitudinal testing programme, in the bachelor curriculum of the study of Veterinary Medicine. In the progress assessment, formative tests are used that match the individual development of students as optimally as possible. Feedback on assessment is essential to provide students with information that provides insight into the learning process and further development.
Jeroen Janssen
As director of education, Dr. Jeroen Janssen comes into contact with students from very diverse backgrounds. In conversations with students it became increasingly clear to him that the transition from secondary school is not easy for all students. And this is particularly the case with first-generation students. His Senior Fellow project contributes to making first-generation students feel at home at the university even before they start their studies.
Alexei Karas
Dr. Alexei Karas is Associate Professor of Economics at the University College Roosevelt (UCR). Alexei is highly motivated and passionate about introducing data literacy across the curriculum for students from all fields. Alexei has held several leadership positions, for example as head of department and chair of the curriculum committee at UCR. He is an expert in both Economics and Mathematics and an excellent teacher, as evidenced by the Outstanding Teacher of the Year of the UU award in 2017.
Brianne Mc Gonigle
Dr Brianne Mc Gonigle is a highly motivated and passionate academic who is continuously looking for ways to bring research, education and practice into constructive interaction. She has demonstrated leadership and innovation in both education and research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. With her project, she aims to establish an Open Source Investigations Lab that will bring students, teachers, and societal partners together to work towards addressing key global challenges.
Frank van Rijnsoever
Dr. Frank van Rijnsoever is an excellent and passionate teacher with ample experience in leading educational innovation processes. He has a strong ambition to educate leaders of change (LOC) who are very much needed to help solving the big societal challenges. Frank’s project is about “Admission and assessment in leaders of social change education”. He aims to develop evidence-based criteria on which to match students with fitting LOC programs and learning activities, and to assess their progress.
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 this Senior Fellow project, Annet wants to teach students to deal with these uncertainties by working together with different faculties on a complex problem.
Sebastiaan Steenman
Sebastiaan already has quite some advanced leadership experience, as a Director of Education, responsible for all Bachelor, Master and Executive masters' programmes of his department and leading several projects on educational innovation, most recently with the implementation of the REBO Skills Academy. His project aims for building a Utrecht University Skills Academy. The Skills Academy aims at developing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary skills beyond the standard set that is intrinsically linked to a particular degree programme.
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? This project focuses on the introduction of interdisciplinary elements in disciplinary training.