In September 2009 the department of Engineering of Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands has started a pilot honours program for excellent engineering students called PRogram OUstanding Development (PROUD). Aim of this program is to give those engineering students, who have the ambition, the opportunity to work on extra profession related challenges in their study. By means of this PROUD program Fontys University of Applied Sciences is responding to the wishes of students for extra curricular activities and increasing need from the industry for excellent professionals with an extra level of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. In this paper the courses offered at the Engineering department of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences are discussed. Different study possibilities/routings for students were developed depending on earlier acquainted competences, adaptation abilities to our system (special possibilities for slow starters) and tracking and tracing by intensive study coaching. This resulted in an improvement of the yield of students to 74% of students started in 2008. After working successfully on reducing the drop out rate of our engineering students the department focused on possibilities for excellent students. The department started the PROUD pilot together with engaged engineering students. In 2008 engineering students have carried out a research among their fellow students, lecturers, other institutes [1] and industry. This resulted in a quite different approach of an honours program for the department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. In the PROUD program the student is stimulated to personally shape his educational career and to explicitly work on developing his own competences. The PROUD excellent program starts after the first year and extends to at least 3 semesters in the following years. The student, guided by a supervisor and outside the regular study time, is working on building an excellent portfolio at the university as well as in industry. During this period the PROUD student will work in industry one day a week in average. This is on top of his bachelor educational program. The students will receive an excellent honours certificate together with their bachelor's degree at the end of the study to express their honourable work. Each year about 20 students apply for a place in PROUD but thus far only about 3-4 passed the first interview round. It turns out that student, university and industry are eager to participate in this PROUD program.
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In honours programmes, teachers face the task of designing courses in which students feel challenged and learn from accomplishing demanding assignments. The aim of this study was to investigate students’ and teachers’ perceptions of challenge and learning in an honours programme. From 2016 to 2019, students and teachers rated the learning activities during the programme and explained their ratings. The results showed that in the first two years, teachers estimated challenge and learning significantly higher than the students did. However, both students and teachers viewed the tasks as the factor with the strongest impact on challenge and learning. In the first year, students also identified group dynamics as challenging and a source for learning. Enhancing task complexity and supporting group dynamics are the main factors to adjust the level of challenge in an honours programme. Monitoring students’ and teachers’ perceptions can help to adapt the programme to improve students’ learning.
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Honours programs prepare talented students to become the excellent professionals of the future. However, the behavioral aspects which define an excellent professional have not been elucidated yet. We therefore performed a research study on how professionals characterize an excellent professional in their own field.Three consecutive focus group discussions were conducted with 5-12 professionals from ICT; Life Sciences and Technology; and achitecture, built environment and civil engineering. In these discussions, perceptions on professional excellence in their field were revealed. The discussions were recorded and transcribed, and the data was analysed by two researchers, independently, using ATLAS ti. In a consenus meeting, a concept profile was set up, which was validated through a Delphi survey with selected experts from each professional field. In total, profiles for 14 professional field have been developed. The profiles contain generic, as well as, domain specific aspects. These profiles are implemented into the corresponding honours programs, improving the transition from educational programs to professional practice.
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Honours programs are selective programs that offer challenging educational opportunities for talented students who are willing and able to do more than regular programs offer them (Wolfensberger et.al.,2012). For optimal learning, these programs should focus on three dimensions of teaching approaches: community building; enhancing academic competence, and offering freedom. The amount of freedom in honours education is the most distinguishing aspect from regular programs (Wolfensberger,2012), however, also for honoursstudents an amount of structure is needed to enhance engagement (Lang et.al.,2010) and performance (Locke & Latham,2006; DeShon & Alexander,1996). Explicit learning outcomes can be a way to provide this strucure. In the Netherlands, honours programs of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) aim to prepare students to become the excellent professional of the future. Since it is not clear which competencies define this excellent professional, each institution determines the learning outcomes for their honours students. For instance, Hanze University of Applied Sciences (UAS) focusses on how the working field defines an excellent professional, developing an evidence-based competency profile specific for each discipline. Rotterdam UAS, developed the profile for Innovative Action for all disciplines, and Saxion UAS established the Reflective Professional profile to define learning outcomes for their honours students, both based on literature research. In a collaborative project, these three aforementioned HEI gathered honours programs descriptions of 8 HEI to assess overlapping competences they adopt as learning outcomes for honours students. Preliminary results indicate substantial overlap and an alignment between working field perceptions and available literature.In this session, the following issues will be discussed: •The added value and content of competency profiles defining learning outcomes in honours education;•how specific these profiles should be (discipline-specific or general);•the added value and possibility of a shared (inter)national honours competency profile;•potential risks: limiting freedom in honours education, cultural differences regarding definition of excellence. Description of the session (100 words): the session starts as focus group discussion facilitated by a moderator and concentrating on the question: Which competences / learning outcomes should honours programs concentrate on? Aim is to explore opinions and views of the participants. Afterwards three higher education institutes present shortly the competencies and learning goals they adopt. Next, a round table discussion takes place, based on statements. Participants choose their position (pro or con) before the discussion starts, discus their views, and indicate afterwards whether their opinion is changed. Aim is to indicate pro’s and con’s for (inter)national uniform honours competences and learning goals.
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PurposeHonours programs prepare talented students to become future excellent professionals . However, competences defining an excellent professional have not been elucidated yet. We investigated how professionals characterize an excellent communication professional, aiming to develop a competence profile to guide honours education at Communication Institute of Hanze University of Applied Sciences.Conceptual frameworkThe amount of freedom in honours education is an important aspect distinguishing honours from regular programms. However, also for honoursstudents an amount of structure is needed. Explicit learning goals are an effective way to offer structure and enhance performance (Locke & Latham, 2006). Competence profiles can direct these learning goals in honours education. Research questions and designWe performed empiric research to understand how professionals characterize an excellent communication professional and implemented this competence profile in honours education. One year after implementation, perceptions of students and staff on the profile and its implementation were analysed.Using a mixed-method approach, three focus group discussions were conducted with communication professionals (N=16), followed by a Delphi panel with experts (N=30). In each focus group, professionals discussed competences and behaviors characterizing an excellent communication professional. After validation, the profile was implemented in the honours programme. One year after implementation, students and staff evaluated the use of the profile.Data collection and analysisAll focus group sessions were recorded and transcribed. Analysis was done by two researches independently, using open coding on ATLAS ti., based on the grounded theory method. In a consensus meeting, a concept profile was developed. This concept profile was validated through a Delphi survey with Dutch experts to achieve a quantifiable consensus. One year after implementation, perceptions of students and staff on the profile and its implementation were collected and analysed.Results Data clarify that in addition to possessing solid technical skills and practical knowledge, excellent communication professionals are differentiated by their capacity to be strategic, empathic, expressive, decisive and to see patterns and interrelationships. In a second phase, honours faculty used the excellent professional profile as a benchmark to develop a set of six undergraduate level learning outcomes to structure the honours programme and assessment standards. For each of these learning outcomes, smaller developmental milestones were defined to help students gauge their development and reflect on their progress during three honours years. A digital assessment tool was created to monitor student growth and structure annual summative assessment processes. One year following creation and application, students and staff were asked to evaluate the implementation of the excellence profile and learning outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of implications for both curriculum design, operational effects and assessment quality. Conclusions This research promotes an connection between the professional field and educators, resulting in curricular changes. The implemmentation of competence profiles of excellent professionals in honours curricula offer clear learing goals to guide student’s development and, furhtermore, improves the transition from educational programs to professional practice, allowing students to develop (or strengthen) competences and behaviors which are, according to professionals themselves, essential for that profession. This exchange between professional field and educators can lead to new standards needed to face future challenges.Theoretical/Practical implications This is the first empiric study profiling the excellent communication professional. Practical relevance of this profile is twofold. For the work field, it describes competences which could be used for strategic selection of high potential candidates. For educators, it offers guidelines for assessment and curricular development, especially in honours education. In this presentation we explain 1) the research conducted to develop a competence profile for the excellent communication professional, 2) how it was subsequently used to guide curricular development and 3) the experiences concerning implementation by staff and students one year following implementation.
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Student satisfaction gains an increasingly central position in the context of quality measurements. However, student satisfaction can also be stipulated as an important motivational factor for students as learners. This study combines this perspective on student satisfaction with the notion of differences in students’ ability. We hypothesize that differences in ability result in differences in student satisfaction. In line with concepts of high ability education, it is additionally hypothesized that this relation is mediated by educational stimulation - divided in cognitive, creative and professional stimulation – as well as by participation in honours programs. A structural equation modelling (N=733) of factors affecting student satisfaction in higher education shows that cognitive, creative and professional stimulation are the largest influencers of bachelor students’ sense of satisfaction. The interrelation between these three aspects of educational stimulation also shows the complexity of higher educational practice, since it suggests that cognitive stimulation cannot be realized without a creative factor, and vice versa. Professional stimulation needs both. Furthermore, the results show that educational stimulation mediates the effect of students’ ability on their educational satisfaction. This implies that changes in education can indeed influence students’ educational satisfaction, especially by providing educational quality. Finally, considering students’ ability level, it is shown that especially cognitive abler students are less easy to satisfy. The combination of educational stimulation and ability suggests that especially the more cognitive able students do not feel themselves sufficiently cognitively or creatively stimulated, and hence are less satisfied in vocational higher education.
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The overall question of this study is: to what extent do connections existbetween mission statements, performance indicators, and program assessmentsthat might indicate a significant alignment and indicate the effectivenessof honors programs?
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Since 2016, the European Honors Council stimulates talent development programs at European Higher Education Institutions, which help talented young people to reach their full potential, so they can positively contribute to the solving of societal problems. This is a challenging process, but we are convinced that international collaboration and exchange is essential for talent development in a globalized society. The EHC has grown to a membership of over 200.We present two examples of international activities in which the EHC is involved: 1. Publishing the Journal of the European Honors Council. This journal (in open access) publishes notes on good practices and papers on research, all meant to exchange experiences and insights internationally. Working with an editorial board involving five countries, at the time of writing the Journal is in the process of publishing its third issue.2. Taking part in the CoTalent project, in which nine institutions from six European countries work together to develop tools that help teachers to stimulate talented students in higher education. Based on experiences from these two examples, we open the floor for a discussion with participants aiming to find innovative ways to foster international collaboration and exchange. All EHC Board members and Journal of the EHC Editorial Board members present at the conference will participate in this session.
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One of the factors that differentiate honors from regular teaching at the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, is the freedom that honors students enjoy, a freedom that evokes excellence because it is focused and targeted. This targeted freedom takes three different shapes in our honors program and comes with specific challenges for both students and teachers. While the attractions and advantages of such freedom are both theoretically and practically significant, our experience has also demonstrated drawbacks that need to be addressed and resolved in creating effective honors education.The challenges and struggles as well as the rewards that we have experienced might be familiar to honors educators around the world, but they are also shaped by the particular contexts of our program within the Faculty of Geosciences, within Utrecht University, and within the Netherlands, contexts that we will now introduce.
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