Two Teaching Fellow grants awarded

Each year, the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) – on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science – awards grants aimed at helping lecturers translate their vision for teaching into real-world practice. These grants for educational innovation are inspired by the well-known Veni, Vidi, Vici grants for research. Five proposals from UU teachers are being honoured with grants this year: two Teaching Fellow grants, three Senior Fellow grants and a Leadership grant. This is an amazing achievement and will provide a vital impetus to the further development of our academic teaching.

Teaching Fellow grant

This category is for proposals for a term of one year, aimed at innovation within a specific course or unit of study. Teaching Fellows receive €50,000 each for their project. Grants have been awarded to the following two proposals submitted by lecturers at our university:

FLEXible learning: Targeting Social Inequalities through Forensic Linguistics. Teaching Fellow: Patricia Canning

This proposal is for a new undergraduate interdepartmental level 3 course in Forensic Linguistics (FL) that combines academic learning with community engagement. FL is a dynamic subject that bridges language, law, psychology, and criminology, aligning with University College Utrecht’s liberal arts mission. It investigates how language is used in forensic settings, as well as its effects on people, institutions, and praxis. It will be the first FL course of its kind in mainland Europe. It targets social inequality through collaborative pedagogy and research with community and judicial organisations. This will be monitored, evaluated, and showcased through a new ‘task force’, ‘FLEX’ (Forensic Linguistic EXperiences), comprised of students, community stakeholders, and individuals who have experienced language-based challenges in forensic and institutional contexts.

I choose consciously: a reflective start with a broad, self-directed training through vlogs from seniors. Teaching Fellow: Merel van Goch

In this project, prospective students learn - through vlogs of senior students - how to consciously choose courses before the start of the broad, self-directed undergraduate program Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS). LAS-students design their own study path, resulting in a unique combination of deep, broad, integrative and reflective learning. During their studies they receive intensive guidance, but in the summer before they start, they choose their courses relatively independent. By these vlogs prospective LAS-students can independently make more conscious and better informed choices for a reflective start of their studies. They get to know the university better; they learn to make choices and to anticipate their consequences. This way, they study more consciously, confidently and enthusiastically, hopefully leading to less study or wellbeing problems.

See the website of NRO for the complete overview of awarded projects.

Comenius network

The Fellows also become members of the Comenius network of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). This national network consists of all lecturers who have received a grant from the Comenius programme, as well as the nominees for the ISO Teachers' Award. The network is a meeting place where educational innovators exchange experiences and ideas. The Utrecht members can be found here.

Innovating your education?

Are you a teacher at Utrecht University and are you interested in submitting a proposal? This autumn lecturers can apply for a Comenius grant or other educational innovation grants. Please contact the Centre for Academic Teaching at cat@uu.nl.  After the summer, the first letters of intent for the 2021 grants should be submitted. The Centre has a large network of experts and is happy to help you optimise your project proposal.