University College Guidance Network (UCGN) celebrates 10-year anniversary

The UCGN is a professional development and training platform, where cross-UC interests can be addressed collaboratively. Its members come from all Liberal Arts and Sciences UC’s in The Netherlands, and are engaged directly in student guidance: counsellors, psychologists, student life officers, (senior) tutors, teachers, exchange officers, admissions staff, and others.

Held twice-yearly in rotation at all of the member colleges, meetings provide training, best practice exchange, networking and community-building. 

So far, more than 160 different people have taken part in this platform, during 47 different professional practice themes and training workshops, including over 10 different external training organisations.

Topics have included: Supporting Students on the Autism Spectrum; Suicide Prevention; Intercultural Competence; Substance Abuse; Guiding Transgender Students; Guiding Highly Gifted and Highly Sensitive Students; Perfectionism in Students in ‘Excellence’ Settings; Guiding Students in Bereavement; Problems of Polarisation; Policy, Practice & Dilemmas in Matters of Sexual Misconduct; Young Adults and Anxiety; and many more.

What do members say about the network?

“… I want to comment on what a good experience we found the meeting. The following day, my colleagues were in situations where the training they received was profoundly helpful.” (UCR member)

“Many thanks for a very inspirational UCGN day! I think it came at a’ perfect timing’ for me and my colleagues and I think it will help us tremendously creating a strong and hopefully inspiring plan for our next semester.” (EUC member)

“I think we should not underestimate the importance of [the UCGN]. It manages to bring a diverse group of academics together (who all have busy schedules) and really facilitates the sharing of experiences. It really connects UC's with the network and each network meeting is a success. This is not a trivial, minor thing. We do not only see all the different campuses but also really get to know each and share our experiences about what we think are good teaching/tutoring/guidance practices. This is a great platform for staff to learn and grow.” (UCU member)

“Thank you for organizing this. I don't think many examples exist of where cross-institutional networking works as well and over such a longer period of time as with the UCGN” (LUC member)

The founder/chair of the UC Guidance network is Mark Baldwin, whom you can contact with any questions/comments. M.P.Baldwin@uu.nl