News

The University of Twente invites you to the Seminars: 'The ins and outs of TOM'. The Seminar is a 1 or 1.5 day event for (international) educational professionals and teachers who are interested in our innovative education model.

On Thursday 13 December the first 4TU.CEE PhD candidate, Inken Gast, is defending her dissertation titled “Team-Based Professional Development – Possibilities and challenges of collaborative curriculum design in higher education”. The past years Inken has studied the professional development of teachers at the UT during the implementation of the Twente Educational Model (TEM).

Inaugural lecture prof. dr. Perry den Brok

As per 15 September Perry den Brok has been appointed as new chairman for the 4TU.Centre for Engineering Education. He succeeds Jan van der Veen who held this position for the last four years. The 4TU.CEE board would like to thank Jan for his contribution and commitment to 4TU.CEE in his role of chairman. Jan will remain active as local 4TU.CEE leader for the University of Twente.

Evidence based educational innovation at Wageningen University

On Friday, June 15th, a group of lecturers, study advisors counsellors from Wageningen University participated in a one day workshop on ‘How to beat procrastination’. There was a wide array of topics covered that day, including: what are the cultural aspects of procrastination and other factors that influence procrastination and  its psychological roots.

In the CEPHEI project (Cooperative E-learning Platform for Higher Education in Industrial Innovation) a consortium of nine universities joined forces to  build a community of digital learners in university and industry. It aims to develop a cooperative e-learning platform for industrial innovation. The e-learning platform will consist of an open platform, with free online courses, project-based (face-to-face) education at university and it provides a community-building platform.

Fear of Failure is one of those issues that teachers and academic advisors are usually confronted with, when they encounter students who express anxiety or worries concerning the prospect of underperforming. It is an issue that worries those who work with students -and want to help them- but might be wondering how to go about it. Given the ubiquitous nature of ‘fear of failure’ among students, Wageningen University decided to include this topic in the project ‘Diversity and Flexibility’ for the 4TU.CEE Programme 2018. The workshop took place on May 9th at the Campus of Wageningen University and was facilitated by two experts; one in the field of intercultural education, Marijke Van Oppen, and the other on counselling as a psychologist, Jessica Price.

MIT, TU Delft, UTwente, Wageningen University and TU Eindhoven all recognize that 21st century engineering students need more than specialist knowledge alone to be able to work in this fast changing world. They need a wider skills set than their predecessors. Skills like creative and entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to communicate with the outside world for example. These are topics the universities are all currently working on by providing flexibility in the education programmes, more hands on education and interdisciplinary education. On 17 May MIT and the 4TU universities presented their own vision on engineering education of the future. In the discussion it became clear that all 5 universities face similar challenges, one of which is assessment. Read the article that appeared in TU/e Cursor for more insights. The presentations can be found below:

Insights from TU Berlin on professional development of teaching staff and activating large classes (1000+)

At TU/e Johanna Höffken initiated a project to design a USE (User Society Enterprise) learning line on ‘responsible innovation in a global context’ last year. The project aims to explore and implement stimulating learning approaches, which link and integrate university education with the global context. Central in this approach is the idea to truly engage with the context when designing technical solutions. This is why close collaboration with companies and other societal stakeholders is sought throughout the learning line. Höffken and her colleagues received funding from the innovation fund of 4TU.CEE Eindhoven to carry out the project.

The first Comenius Leadership Fellows are granted. Six professionals in higher education will be able to implement their ideals and ideas for educational innovations. One of the scholarships went to WUR and focusses on interdisciplinarity.  A theme that is high on the agenda of 4TU.CEE.  Each professional is awarded a Leadership Fellow of €250,000 for implementing an educational innovation across an entire faculty or even an entire institution. They were selected from 23 proposals.

Ready for the next step in your career?  Join the online course ‘Design your next career move’ and use the five-step career-thinking model to explore, design and open up opportunities. The course is now offered all year-round. This self-paced course is aimed specifically at engineers. Whether you are in the early stages of your career or an experienced professional, following a systems approach will give you a unique advantage when planning and designing your next career move.

On 15 June psychologist Jessica Price will give a 1-day workshop designed to support lecturers who struggle with procrastinating tendencies of their students. It will provide you with useful information and strategies that will support you in helping students to develop the mind-set and the capacity to start and finish their projects on time! This free workshop is given at Wageningen University. All 4TU staff is welcome. For more information and to sign up visit our 4TU.CEE website.