Section 4 Quality – Six themes, one university

Table 3 below sets out the accounts for expenditure by OC&W theme. The underspend is 14% compared to the allocated funds and is mainly explained by arrears in spending at Erasmus MC. Erasmus MC is investing heavily in hybrid and online education and, to that end, wants to improve the facilities at the education centre, now that it is being refurbished anyway. As the construction of the education centre was delayed, the facilities in the learning environment could not be updated either. The situation is expected to be resolved by the end of 2024. The participation bodies have been informed.

EUR uses different theme descriptions internally to those used in the regulations drawn up by OC&W in 2018. EUR's descriptions are in line with its strategy and educational vision. However, the link to the OC&W themes is always stated. The € 17,747 million expenditure is therefore shown below in EUR terminology.

EUR distributes most of the Quality Agreements funds directly among its faculties, as shown in table 5.

Faculty activities are supplemented by services from the Community for Learning and Innovation (CLI) and three thematic programmes. Their spending over 2023 is shown in the table below.

To gain a better understanding of the results produced by the investments in 2023, a summary is given for each theme below.

Personal and Professional Development and Student Wellbeing (OC&W themes 1 and 2)

The promise of the educational vision and the Quality Agreements is, that by the end of 2024, most curricula will have organised skills education to better train students as academic professionals and there will be an effective approach to make students resilient both mentally and in other ways. Looking ahead to 2024, EUR is expected to meet the following targets:

• Most faculties have skills courses that focus on personal development and/or alignment with career/labour market.
• EUR improves prevention, encourages discussion of mental health problems and streamlines and updates the support provided. 

In the period 2019-2022, most faculties have developed teaching that focuses on study and vocational skills. Erasmus MC, Erasmus School of History and Communication (ESHCC), Erasmus School of Philosophy (Esphil) and Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) have now implemented the skills courses. Erasmus University College and Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) developed career skills and career orientation and study skills in 2023, respectively. ESE does this as flexibly as possible (with an options menu). Erasmus School of Law continues to dedicate a large proportion of Learning Innovators’ development capacity to better student guidance and is in the final phase of its Legal Academic Skills line in the Department of Criminology. 

In addition to the faculties, central programmes are working to further enhance the student's personal development path:

• Impact at the Core launched the Student Journey initiative with Esphil in 2023. It is being examined with all the faculties where students make important steps in their study career and how these could be better supported.
• Wellbeing launched an online mentoring scheme pilot project. Students receive professional guidance focused on the intersection of study and personal well-being.
• LifeVersity (www.lifeversity.nl/) organised 102 leadership and personal effectiveness courses. The courses are free and organised by students, for students. In 2023, 823 students took part. 

The developments are discussed in Communities of Practice. Development is needed with regard to the further professional development of lecturers and student development within the framework of our Erasmian values. 

Impact-driven learning in 2023 (OC&W 4) 

EUR's ambition is to train students who can contribute in work and society to solutions related to the major socio-economic, demographic, technological and climate transitions. Students were equipped with the skills during their studies (see previous section) and gained experience with these kinds of problems. The aim is to offer a course in every EUR programme by 2024 in which students work with citizens, organisations, governments and/or businesses to address a current urgent challenge from outside the university. The expectation is that, by the end of 2024, many of the more than 100 programmes will offer such a course, using sufficient external assignments to train their lecturers based on the didactic model. EUR is pleased with the progress that faculties made in 2023 on impact-driven education, as shown in the table below.

In 2023, the educational concept for the third-year bachelor degree (minor in Impact Space) was further honed. The programme was rated 9.5 by students. Further work took place on a more sustainable model to work with the city. A structural collaboration with the Crooswijk district was launched, in which the district identifies what is needed and students then develop the challenges into projects. The results are discussed collectively in order to learn from them. This project is in line with the approach adopted by De Hef op Zuid, previously launched by Erasmus X in Rotterdam South. Impact at the Core and the faculties worked closely with the Erasmus Connects student initiative to generate assignments.

Within the faculties, Erasmus MC, ESHCC and Esphil in particular are active in developing learning solutions online and hybrid and artificial intelligence. Erasmus X is tasked with bringing in innovations from outside the university, in addition to the CLI and faculties. The aim is to develop an innovative culture together with lecturers and students, as well as to implement specific educational innovations. In 2023, the Ace Yourself app, which focuses on study skills particularly for new students, was introduced nationwide. The purpose of the app is to make education more accessible. Erasmus X also organised working groups to explore the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence. Erasmus X developed game-based teaching for two faculties. www.erasmusx.io/projects 

Most faculties used the CLI for hybrid and online curricula. Erasmus MC, ESSB and Erasmus University College are investing in hybrid and online design to provide more flexible teaching for students who need to collaborate at different times. Table 9 provides a summary of the faculty initiatives carried out in collaboration with the CLI in 2023.

General overview of participation of the HoKa Work Group

The HoKa Work Group regularly reflects on its position, role and progress. As a result of these reflections, the HoKa Work Group outlined a number of advantages for the current performance of HoKa investments. The work group also noted significant improvements in the current academic year compared to previous years. 

In general, collaboration with the project managers of each of the central HoKa projects is positive and proactive. Through consistent and regular meetings and/or dialogues, all members are considered contributors to the development and performance of HoKa projects. There is a mutual recognition of the benefits of this cooperation, on the part of both the council and the projects themselves. However, a challenging moment occurred with one of the central projects, partly due to miscommunication and inadequate expectation management, which temporarily had an adverse effect on the working relationship. Nonetheless, we continued to see the value of proactive engagement, and thanks to mutual reflection sessions and over-communicating expectations, we managed to recalibrate our working relationship. It was therefore ensured that the University Council's opinions were generally incorporated into the decision-making and creative processes in a timely manner. 

We would like to draw attention to the added value of our access to co-creation. As well as giving regular advice on projects and agreeing to key parts of the budget, we have largely maintained our access to co-creation. As a result, highly committed representatives of the EUR community were able to work on the projects close to their hearts and enrich them with new and creative ideas. The co-creation process ensures that appointed members of the EUR community who are aware of the needs of the peersthey represent convey these needs to the project leaders, thus helping to further embed the projects within our university. 

By mid-2023, we noticed an improvement in the HoKa Work Group's support system. First, there was timely contact with HoKa's National Desk, which resulted in the quick and efficient onboardingof the newly appointed HoKa Work Group, ultimately allowing us to start our participatory activities very early in the academic year and thus maximise our input. Second, there was permanent, regular contact with the HoKa policy maker, who gave us enough strategic information that supported our awareness and use of participation rights. In both cases, the accumulated experience of the council's support staff over the years was paramount. This was different from previous years, when the lack of timely transfer information weakened the support system. 

Central EUR HoKa Projects

We recognise the benefits of increasing personal development skills at central level, with a focus on societal impact. In line with the Educational Vision, we support how these central projects allow for cross-faculty collaboration. We recognise the benefits of continuing these projects beyond the HoKa investment scheme, when a more centrally financed scheme will eventually replace it. 

We strongly believe that high-level involvement of participatory bodies (i.e. co-creation) is central to the effective development of projects aimed at improving educational quality, and we recommend that this be continued when a centrally financed scheme is introduced.

Student well-being

The representatives of the HoKa Work Group meet around twice a month with the Student Well-being (SW) project team and are satisfied with this team. This is thanks to the clear communication, timely updates on the projects and adequate and quick answers to questions. The representatives feel that their input and feedback is highly valued. 

The SW team, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, is constantly looking for ways to improve student well-being at EUR. In addition to the proven success of the Living Room, which provides easy access to SW interventions, work is currently underway on the implementation of Student

Well-being Officers in each faculty, with the aim of ensuring that SW initiatives are implemented at faculty level, while liaising with the central SW team and other SW officers to guarantee collaboration and knowledge sharing. It is also worth mentioning the SW team's efforts focused on physical well-being and the effect of exercise on well-being. All these efforts are also recognised by other universities, which turn to EUR's SW team for advice and suggestions. 

Impact at the core 

The representatives of the HoKa Work Group meet with the Impact at the Core project team around twice a month to discuss various aspects of the project. The discussions are always open with plenty of scope for us to ask critical questions, express opinions and suggest ideas. Moreover, these discussions often link to other developments within the university, such as the Convergence (collaboration between EUR, Erasmus MC and Delft University of Technology), which is important for reasons of efficiency and effectiveness. 

Important steps have been taken in 2023 to further embed impact-driven education at EUR. One that is particularly worth mentioning is the launch of the Work-Integrated Learning platform Riipen, which makes it possible to bring wicked problems of external stakeholders into the curriculum. The fact that EUR is the first university in continental Europe to use Riipen illustrates both the vision and determination of the Impact at the Core team, placing us at the forefront of developments in this type of education. 

Erasmus X

The representatives of the HoKa Work Group meet the Erasmus X project team around twice a month and are satisfied with this team because of their willingness to provide us with the necessary information and their openness to our critical questions. Despite a recent challenging experience, we are currently endeavouring to improve our working relationship through frequent contact and co-creative sessions.

Particularly in light of this situation, we appreciate the openness and dedication of the project managers. 

Erasmus X has several innovative projects to improve engagement, soft skills and labour market preparation. Their projects support students and staff in dealing with AI, taking them in an innovative direction at EUR. Another commendable project, Redefining the Classroom, is able to link EUR students to real, societal problems in their HEF house in southern Rotterdam, embedding innovation in local communities. Furthermore, ErasmusX often makes its expertise available to other partners within EUR, such as faculties, programme committees and other EUR projects, maximising the impact of their innovation. 

Center for Learning and Innovation

This year, the HoKa Work Group worked even more closely with the CLI project team through a series of dialogues, at intervals of around a month. We particularly commend the efforts of the project managers to involve us in regular conversations about their projects. This positive development

demonstrated how timely and clear communication can ensure a smooth working relationship. Although we did not participate in co-creative sessions within CLI, the dialogues were critical moments when our input was valued and we received clear answers to our questions. 

We also learned to value the CLI sub-projects focused on professional educational development and online/hybrid education. These issues, which had previously raised many questions from the University Council, were duly explained to us during the dialogues and we appreciate that our input was properly addressed. 

Decentralised participation

While there are clearly positive aspects at the central level of participation in HoKa, several shortcomings have come to light at the decentralised participation level this year that we urgently need to address and resolve. 

HoKa's level of involvement in the decentralised participation bodies within our university varies considerably. While some faculties work within structured frameworks, most others follow informal processes or overlook the issue outside annual budget approvals. In other words, there is a serious lack of co-creation in HoKa projects in most decentralised councils and committees. Moreover, documentation is often not delivered on time, hampering the already limited resources of these councils and increasing the workload of participants. 

The fact that these participation rights are not fully respected is compounded by the lack of knowledge among members of these councils about the scope of their rights and what HoKa entails. Another contributing factor is the limited resources these councils have to work on participation tasks in general and on HoKa in particular. Finally, as far as we know, there are no standardised guidelines for co-creation, making the process confusing and sometimes discouraging for those members who do sometimes experience it.

Given the positive aspects of co-creation identified at central level, we find it disheartening that the decentralised bodies do not benefit from it. Members of decentralised bodies operate closely within their communities and are even more aware of the needs and issues of their peers than we are at central level, and thus, we believe, better equipped to co-create for the benefit of their programmes or faculties. 

Recommendations

Access to co-creation within HoKa has several advantages and is highly valued by both the participating bodies and the project managers for the reasons mentioned above. With the termination of HoKa and the centralisation of some projects, we strongly recommend that the co-creation process is continued. We also believe that it can be improved, however, in light of the experiences mentioned above. The recommendations:

• The university needs to ensure a timely and systematic familiarisation period for the new members of participating bodies at HoKa. The handover information shared in the familiarisation period should be digestible, comprehensive and holistic, ideally with a multi-year overview of HoKa, to help new council and committee members understand the context and work of their predecessors and thus be better prepared for co-creation.