30 years of Teacher Awards at UU

That Utrecht University has been awarding the Teacher award for 30 years means that education is very important to our university, says Leen Dorsman, emeritus professor of university history and winner of the 1999/2000 Outstanding Teacher Award. Together with the 2007/2008 winner, emeritus professor of psychology Liesbeth Woertman, he looks back on 30 years of Teacher Awards and teaching at UU. 

In order to encourage lecturers to continuously improve their teaching and subsequently appreciate them for it, Utrecht University has granted Teacher awards since the 1994/1995 academic year. For beginning lecturers (maximum five years of experience) there is the Teacher Talent award, for experienced lecturers the Outstanding Teacher award. 

The ultimate reward for good teaching

The 30th anniversary of the Teacher Awards will be celebrated with an extra festive presentation of these coveted awards on 6 March during the OnderwijsFestival, the annual event for all UU education professionals. Also on the programme is an interesting panel discussion with three former winners of the Teacher Awards, who together look back on the changes in education over the past 30 years. Liesbeth Woertman endorses the importance of this prestigious award.

Appreciation for teaching is so important, not only for the teacher who wins the award. It contributes to securing the high quality of our education

Investing in education

Utrecht University attaches great importance to teaching quality, educational innovation and teacher development and has been investing in the quality of education and in the recognition and appreciation of teachers for decades. For example, in 1995 - the same year as the presentation of the first Teacher award - the UU was the first university in the Netherlands to develop and introduce the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO), a certificate of didactic competence focusing on professional development. For more experienced lecturers, UU has a Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). In addition to an Educational Leadership course for lecturers with a directing role in education, there is also the Senior Fellow Programme, designed to strengthen educational leadership at UU by increasing the number of professors with an emphasis on education. This programme acts as a stimulus for educational innovation and contributes to the quality of education. 

In 2013, the Utrecht Education Incentive Fund was set up to promote the professionalisation of teachers and encourage educational innovations. The Executive Board awards two million euros annually to projects carried out by the teachers themselves. Teaching innovation received an extra boost in 2014 with the establishment of the successful teaching innovation programme Educate-it. Since 2017, all knowledge and expertise by and for teachers has been housed in one place: the Centre voor Academic Teaching & Learning (CAT).