Section 3 Education - Making an impact

The academic year in the Netherlands is one of the longest in Europe. Recent research by The Young Academy associates a long academic year with higher work pressure for staff and students. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science set up the A Smarter Academic Year (SAY) project in 2022 to see whether the number of weeks of teaching can be responsibly reduced and/or existing teaching activities can be organised smarter to create more relief and breathing room for students and teachers during the academic year. 

EUR, together with the University of Amsterdam, is the coordinating institution for this national pilot. Both institutions appointed a project leader in early 2023. After the national kick-off in March, the project leaders delivered a project plan and organised a successful knowledge-sharing meeting, as well as laying the foundations for monitoring the national pilot. 

Within EUR, three faculties (ESHCC, RSM and ESL) are participating in an autonomous pilot. At ESHCC, the aim of the pilot is to reduce peaks in work pressure for students and teachers. This will be done by changing the different BA-1 calendar of the History and IB History programmes and aligning it with the academic calendar of the other programmes within the faculty wherever possible. Meanwhile, the legal and faculty frameworks within which they operate and are able to operate have been identified. An overview of alternative academic calendars has also been produced and discussions have been held with stakeholders. 

At RSM, the desired outcome of the pilot is to reduce the number of weeks of teaching, offer more integrative testing and more concentrated teaching. In 2023, RSM carried out an integrative test for two courses for the second time. In addition, RSM introduced a period of limited teaching in BSc1. This means that many lecturers do not teach and students can also study remotely during this period. 

In order to ease the study load and workload at EUR and create more opportunities for interdisciplinary and project-based collaboration, the internal EUR Smarter Academic Year (SAY) project was launched alongside participation in, and lead institution status for, the national A Smarter Academic Year pilot. A general exploratory study was delivered at the start of the year that identified EUR's needs in terms of a smarter academic year. The rest of the year was marked by the development of a strategic implementation plan.

The educational vision places a strong emphasis on education in which students are trained to contribute towards aspects such as good health care or a fair distribution of income on the basis of Erasmian values (world citizen, reciprocal, modest, connecting and critical) with real issues and with all parties involved. It is the university's ambition to further develop this impact-driven education. We remain committed in the coming years to providing all students with an interdisciplinary learning experience in which they engage with real issues from outside the university at least once in their studies. 

Impact learning is engaged learning

The educational innovation programme Impact at the Core works with lecturers in all faculties to shape this education. This takes place within courses in bachelor and master programmes. Students from the Erasmus School of Law tackled legal issues at a legal advice centre (Rechtswinkel) in Rotterdam South. Students from the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication looked at how art and culture can contribute to sustainability transitions. At the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB), students had the opportunity to follow an honours programme aimed at involving as many people as possible in the energy transition. Students from all bachelor programmes were able to choose impact-oriented minors (major electives of 15 credits). 

Example: Crooswijk workshop 

Based on the ambition to be involved in our environment, Impact at the Core started building a long-term relationship with Crooswijk with the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Science (ESSB) faculty. This initiative is supported by the municipality of Rotterdam. The aim is for students and staff to learn from Crooswijk and make a positive contribution to the issues facing the neighbourhood through education. The starting point is to work based on the needs of the neighbourhood and contribute to concrete solutions. Investments were made in 2023 in building relationships, understanding the issues facing the neighbourhood and linking these issues to appropriate programmes. In 2024, the first Public Administration students will start working on an assignment from Crooswijk in their bachelor thesis.

Example: Energy Transition Learning Community 

The energy transition learning community started in 2023 with a dialogue on the energy transition. EUR worked with higher professional education and various partners from the municipality of Rotterdam and the business sector to identify specific questions in the energy transition that have not yet been properly answered. Within the Energy Transition honours programme, students collaborated with external partners to study issues such as fairness in energy policy, energy poverty and the barriers people experience in making their homes more sustainable. 

Building bridges with students: Erasmus Connects 

Students are an important link to our city. Erasmus Connects is a student initiative for the city and the university. Erasmus Connects actively helps lectures to address current case studies in their teaching. 

Impact-driven learning at the heart of your master programme 

The Master in Societal Transitions programme, a full master programme focused on sustainable and fair societal transitions, was launched by the ESPhil faculty in 2023. Students learn to connect insights from different disciplines, from philosophy to ecology, to practice. By doing so, they learn to unravel complex and stubborn sustainability problems. Leadership and reflexivity training are a recurrent theme in the programme. Instead of writing a Master’s thesis, students and lecturers work with societal stakeholders to create an action-oriented transition intervention.

EUR invests in key collaborations that better connect education with the social context:

• The LDE (Leiden, Delft, EUR) is the collaboration with Leiden University and Delft University of Technology and invests mainly in a range of joint electives and final projects. In 2023, the offerings included the minor (a 30-credit elective) Authenticity and Art Crime. Students investigated how art forgery affects the international art market and which legal and ethical principles have an impact. At the LDE Centre for Sustainability, interdisciplinary student teams worked to address a sustainability challenge.
• Within the Convergence initiative, in which EUR has partnered with Erasmus MC and Delft University of Technology to develop a more coherent approach to a number of pressing social issues, online and offline seminars and workshops were held on the themes of Health & Technology, Healthy Start, Pandemic Preparedness Centre (PDPC) and AI Data & Digitalisation. The PDPC organised a course on virology. Members of the Convergence Flagship Human Mobility Center worked with partners to organise a Spring School on post-stroke rehabilitation at home.

EUR is the leading institute for UNIC: a major initiative for cooperation between European universities. UNIC is a partnership of ten universities in ‘post-industrial’ cities. UNIC’s mission is to have a positive impact on the development of the post-industrial cities through inclusive education, innovative research and the involvement of local partners. 

UNIC launched a joint Redesigning the Post-Industrial City MSc programme in 2023. EUR runs this two-year European master programme with its partners in Cork, Bochum, Oulu, Koc, Deusto, Liège and Zagreb. Students in European cities work on developments affected by a changing economy and climate change. The master programme teaches students to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to these issues. For now, Dutch students receive their diploma from the German university. We hope this programme will eventually also receive a positive decision from OC&W in the Netherlands. 

Within UNIC, new forms of education are developed and knowledge about them is shared with partners. Dr Ginie Servant-Miklos led a Summer School programme on educational innovation in 2023. 

Operating internationally in a national context 

For EUR, training students in a broader international scientific environment is essential. We actively collaborate with the city of Rotterdam in our education, but combine this with collaboration in education, research and exchange within a network of partners in Europe and with universities around the world. This enables students to place local, regional and national challenges in a global context and develop critical and analytical skills to understand the complexities in that global context. To make this possible, we apply for grants in Europe. The most important are the Erasmus+ programme and Horizon Europe. A total of 28 grants were awarded in 2023 in which EUR is the coordinating institution or a partner (total value of around € 82 million). 

EUR strives for a positive and constructive balance between outward-looking and inward-looking. The proposed Balanced Internationalisation Act (Wet Internationalisering in Balans), which went into consultation in 2023, is now forcing us to look mainly inwards. This law will have a significant impact on our goals and ambitions for internationalisation policy in our bachelor programmes. However, it also offers opportunities to reassess and redefine the added value of internationalisation and the usefulness of foreign-language education within the national political context. It also helps strengthen the connection to the regional and international labour market. 

In 2022, the university already took the following measures in consultation with the Ministry:

• No active recruitment of international students.
• No new English-language bachelor programmes.
• Information on housing and an explicit appeal to students not to come to Rotterdam without a guarantee of accommodation. 

In cooperation and coordination with the other Dutch universities, preparations were made in 2023 to achieve self-regulation. With this, the universities aim to take measures to control international intake, ensure accessibility for Dutch students, strengthen Dutch as an academic language and increase the chances of retaining international talent.

The European perspective: UNIC & EIT 

The European alliance UNIC is important to EUR in terms of international relations. UNIC is a partnership of ten universities in ‘post-industrial’ cities. UNIC’s mission is to have a positive impact on the development of the post-industrial cities through inclusive education, innovative research and the involvement of local partners. Alongside EUR, participating universities include Koc University Istanbul, Ruhr University Bochum, University of Liège, University College Cork, University of Deusto, University of Oulu, and the University of Zagreb. By becoming a European University, the alliance aims to set an example for the future of education in Europe. 

Following an intensive set-up period in 2021, UNIC made considerable progress in 2022. Two more universities joined the cooperative arrangement: Malmö University and the University of Łódź. Efforts were made to expand the partner agreements between the participating universities in collaboration with the International Office (IO). 

To further promote student mobility, two joint Master’s programmes were introduced at eight universities and an online course catalogue was developed. This catalogue offers European students the option to attend courses at EUR. 

Impact-driven education is a key priority for the universities that take part in UNIC. Given this importance, students work together to address societal challenges faced by all member states. In the context of Redefining the Classroom, Erasmus X developed two city labs in which students explored issues such as inequality in urban areas. In addition, our partners have organised education activities in the context of the Tackling Inequalities honours programme. Virtual Meeting Platforms were organised in the autumn on the themes of Renewable Energy and Ageing Well. The speakers were Julia Witmayer (DIT Platform) and Warsha Jagroep. 

Collaboration between lecturers and employees of the participating universities intensified. CLI worked with the Ruhr University Bochum to develop a short course, also known as microlab, aimed at skills for taking part in a virtual exchange. EUR also provided a successful training programme on diversity and inclusion for staff at the UNIC partner universities. 

The knowledge and experience acquired through UNIC are relevant to the activities to be developed within Erasmus Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Culture & Creativity. This is especially true for the development of international curricula, the creation of societal impact and multi-stakeholder cooperation. A link between these two large-scale strategic European programmes is also mentioned in the UNIC 2.0 extension proposal, which was the subject of intensive efforts in autumn 2022. The formal kick-off was a successful strategic conference with all UNIC partners. 

Together with ESHCC and Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), EUR is part of an alliance that won a bid for the new EIT Culture & Creativity last summer. This Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) financed by Horizon Europe got off to an immediate start and, like UNIC (in combination with UNIC Engaged

Research [UNIC4ER]), offers a strategic opportunity to bring together education and research, to create societal impact and to establish cooperative arrangements with a wide range of stakeholders. The impact is primarily structural and systemic in nature and needs to be properly embedded in the organisation as a whole, with the involvement of all faculties. These types of strategic initiatives therefore contribute significantly to the EUR Strategy 2024 and the EUR core values.

The new Administrative Agreement explicitly focuses on improving student well-being. Back in 2020, EUR set up a broad programme to discuss and improve student well-being through prevention programmes. The Living Room became a permanent fixture on campus in 2023 and attracts an average of 90 visitors a day who drop in to relax or take part in accessible consultation hours at the Personal Support Hub. They also hold workshops on current topics such as coping with stress, sleep problems, addiction and informal care. 

An animated film was developed and campaigns organised to stimulate discussion on mental resilience. In 2023, a total of 6,000 students participated in the semi-annual Wellbeing Weeks. 

Personal development is an important tool to make students more resilient and prevent problems. In collaboration with faculties, two personal development programmes

were implemented, with 150 master students taking part. At the same time, lecturer training and conversations about what could be improved are ongoing. One outcome is the appointment of a well-being officer within the faculties to ensure that well-being is also addressed in education. 

Everything that takes place within the Student Well-being Programme is evidence-based. The annual EUR and the biannual national Student Well-being Monitor show a slightly positive trend, however the overall picture when it comes to students' mental health is still a cause for concern. This is clear from substance abuse and depression, among other things. A scientific database is being created with the aid of a ROOM App (on students' mental health). The aim is to integrate and share the accumulated knowledge on student well-being, both nationally and internationally.

The Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI) supports the innovative capacity of lecturers within the theme Professional development of lecturers. The CLI helps to create a climate that encourages the continuing professional development of lecturers. 

Lecturers can take part in courses, workshops and seminars that help them adapt their teaching to societal changes, new didactic insights from science and practice, and new technological possibilities. Microlabs (short how-to modules) are offered alongside the University Teaching Qualification (BKO), the Senior University Teaching Qualification (SKO) and the Educational Leadership Track (LOL). A total of 131 lecturers received BKO certificates, 31 lecturers received SKO certificates, 7 lecturers received SKE (examination qualification) certificates and 349 lecturers took part in a microlab. 

Lecturers are invited to take part in various Communities of Practice. In the CoP Capacity of Lecturers (CIC), teachers jointly explore ways to improve teaching. The aim of the CIC is to make lecturers key figures in achieving the strategic goals relating to future-oriented education. There is also a network of education specialists. The CIC specifies the support lecturers need at various stages of teaching (from design to assessment) and during various phases of their university career. 

Lecturers can also draw inspiration from TeachEUR's activating teaching methods. A dashboard has been created that provides a clear overview of the training programmes offered by the CLI, Risbo and the Learning & Career Centre (LCC). Management information on lecturer development has also improved. A working group is further developing the LCC's training offer in coordination with Recognition and Rewards.

Following the ambitions from the redefined educational vision, ErasmusU_Online contributes to the accessibility and inclusion of education by working with faculties to develop online programmes and courses for specific target groups (e.g. pre-masters and students who cannot come to campus) to supplement regular campus education. In 2023-2024, the offering consisted of the full-time master programme Psychology of the Digital Media (2022-2023), the pre-master in Health Sciences at ESHPM and the online master in Public Governance, Management and Policy (ESSB). Work started on the redesign of a blended pre-master in Pedagogical Sciences and on the hybrid and online Bachelor in Philosophy Specific Degree at ESPhil. This programme is for students who want to study philosophy as a second degree.

Online education requires different skills from both lecturers and students. Therefore, we design education in broad teams with experts and students. Lecturers and support staff not only improve their teaching, but also grow in terms of their professional development. 

Educational innovation within faculties

 In 2023, the CLI assisted the faculties with the implementation of 43 innovation projects. A good example is the flipping the classroom project for ESSB's economics course. The CLI supported this by converting their traditional lectures to a blended approach with around 50 webcasts, additional activating activities and a number of animated videos. Both students and lecturers report higher study and teaching motivation. 

The CLI also organises digitalisation projects in collaboration with Erasmus Digitalisation & Information Services (EDIS). One example is the assistance to faculties in selecting and using an e-portfolio tool for purposes such as programmatic testing. A second topic is bringing together information, support materials and training for the use of generative AI in education. A third topic is future learning spaces, in which EUR will work with stakeholders to develop and test ideas for the spaces in which educational activities can take place. One example is the Holobox in the Education Lab. 

Co-creation with students is an important part of EUR’s innovative approach. Students-for-Students facilitates the CLI initiatives to improve and supplement the teaching. A great example is LifeVersity.

As part of this initiative, students organised online skills courses for students. In 2023 around two thousand students took part in courses in areas such as public speaking, leadership, wellbeing, creativity and innovation, and career development. Preparations have been made in 2023 for the further development of LifeVersity as a social enterprise under the EUR holding company.

Research and evaluation of improvement in education

 EUR presents itself as a university that cares not only about the innovation of education, but also about the empirical evaluation of the effects of such innovations. Lecturers who want to introduce and evaluate an educational innovation can take advantage of CLI fellowships. Lecturers are then given one day a week off to carry out their project if they wish. There were 22 active CLI Fellows in 2023. The research carried out by the fellows focuses mainly on online and blended education, student and lecturer motivation and wellbeing, and skills training. Fellows share their knowledge in the Community. An interesting series of research lunches were organised under the guidance of the CLI research ambassador, in which both the CLI fellows and PhD students were actively involved and had the opportunity to present their progress or results.

The educational vision works towards future education because learning and working will change in the future. Erasmus X is an educational innovation programme that focuses on this, in collaboration with students. 

Impact and engagement 

In 2023, the focus was on learning in the city. The interdisciplinary programme Redefining the Classroom was carried out at the HefHouse in Rotterdam South. In this programme, the focus is on social impact: expanding educational opportunities and reducing social inequalities. Student learning starts from the local community, in the neighbourhoods of the city. Challenges are formulated together with stakeholders and neighbourhood residents. 

In this project, Erasmus X investigates which learning approach works best to train the academic professional of the future who learns to collaborate and co-create with stakeholders with different perspectives. Active collaboration is already taking place with students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences; in 2024, this will be expanded to include students from senior secondary vocational education. 

Future education

 Erasmus X's second key objective is to develop a fundamentally different way of learning using EdTech and AI. Erasmus X brings in the latest developments from outside the university. It builds on an innovative portfolio of student-focused apps such as the Prometheus Game (a complex solution-based game for students), or the Ace Yourself app, (a new app for developing student agency, learning skill and transferable skills). The rapid evolution in Virtual Reality and AI led to new initiatives such as Immersive Tech, which is about designing simulations that bring real life into the classroom, and the Explore project, in which students and lecturers work together to discover problems and opportunities presented by GenAI.

In the educational vision, there is an emphasis on accessibility and inclusion of our education. The IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) Center focuses on removing barriers and exclusion mechanisms (such as implicit biases) in education, from enrolment to graduation. An important next step was taken in 2023 with the establishment of the Student Council for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (SCEDI). That council will play a crucial role in answering students' questions from different perspectives. The IDEA Center also launched the Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Education. This online platform provides clear and comprehensive information on a variety of tools and training materials that lecturers can integrate into their learning environment, both for themselves and their students, to create a more inclusive educational environment. 

The IDEA Center works with lecturers at EUR. A workshop on good practices in inclusive education and designing an inclusive curriculum was held in 2023. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the fundamental principles and concepts with regard to designing an inclusive curriculum. The focus here is on all parts of the curriculum: learning objectives, literature, assessment, and teaching and learning. 

IDEA puts inclusion on the agenda within EU, including with events. The November edition of Student Wellbeing Weeks centred around two high-impact workshops. Cross the Line asked students to physically cross over when a question corresponded to their experience, creating a space for participants to share their stories in a safe environment. The second workshop, Talking Taboo, discussed difficult and taboo topics, including mental health, online shaming and domestic and sexual violence, in open dialogues. 

Social safety for students: Amnesty manifesto 

On 19 October, Amnesty International and several Dutch higher education institutions came to EUR for a working visit as part of the Let's Talk About Yes project. There were talks on various interventions aimed at social safety, and specifically interventions against sexual violence at our university and at other educational institutions. 

Organising meetings in difficult times 

In collaboration with various departments and student organisations at EUR, we have organised both formal and informal meetings during difficult times. We extended our support to students and staff in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Turkey, Syria and Morocco, the Erasmus MC incident and the situation in Israel and Gaza.

In 2023, preparations were made to further develop programmes focused on impact and engagement:

• The university-level master programmes Marketing in the Age of Data and AI and Sustainability Management, two programmes offered entirely online.
• The university-level master programme Redesigning the Post-Industrial City (RePIC), within the European University of Post- Industrial Cities (UNIC), aimed at students in the Netherlands and the European alliance partners within UNIC. 

In the context of portfolio management, the research master programme in Clinical Research was terminated, as was the post-initial university-level master programme in Commercial Private Law. 

Programme evaluations 

In the context of maintaining educational quality, EUR has all programmes accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Nederlands Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie, NVAO). In 2023, 10 programmes successfully obtained NVAO accreditation for an existing programme. Inspection visits took place for nine programmes and the NVAO's decision will follow in 2024. 

Seven programmes that did not undergo NVAO evaluation invited a panel to perform a peer review in the context of the interim programme evaluations. Such evaluations are typical of EUR's quality assurance system. EUR considers it important that there is coherence between the programmes and that the programmes match the students' initial situation and the requirements of professional practice. EUR is also assessing whether the programmes offer education that matches EUR’s profile, for example when it comes to impact and engagement. 

Internal quality assurance

EUR's new educational vision was adopted in 2023. The process of further operationalising that educational vision into plans and objectives has commenced within the faculties. Based on these redefined visions, efforts are being made to further develop EUR's quality culture and quality assurance system. In 2023, the initial framework was developed for a new quality assurance vision. The further development of internal quality assurance focuses on ownership, confidence and self-confidence, in terms of both culture and system. 

Employee and student participation

A culture of quality relies on a strong connection with faculty councils and programme committees. There is room for improvement in that area. A central participation coordinator was therefore appointed in 2023 to strengthen and further develop an Erasmian vision of the positioning of the Programme Committees.