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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Poster presentation International Honours Conference, Utrecht. July 14th 2016
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Drie pijlers voor het honoursonderwijs zijn: stimuleren van academische competenties, bieden van (gebonden) vrijheid en het creëren van een honours leergemeenschap (ook wel community genoemd).
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Discussions during International Honours Congress Utrecht, Utrecht. 2-3 June 2016.In this session we focused on honours students’ needs for autonomy. What do students want, expect and need from their teachers and what are the teachers’ views concerning this subject. The aim of this session is that both teachers and students gain insight into each other’s views. Ideally, teachers will come to some new understandings they can apply into daily practice, while students will learn when and how to express their needs towards their teacher.
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Invited Keynote, Sirius Programma/Science Guide
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Negen Exchangeteams hebben in het project “EXChange: uitstraling en cultuurverandering door excellentieonderwijs” gewerkt aan de transfer van honours onderwijs naar regulier onderwijs. Elk Exchange team koos een eigen interventie die paste binnen de eigen onderwijssituatie. Om verslag te doen van de interventies die zijn ontwikkeld door de Exchangeteams is de Digitale Infographic Exchangeteams ontworpen. Deze digitale infographic geeft een overzicht van het type interventies die ontwikkeld zijn alsmede de belangrijkste ervaringen en inzichten vanuit de teams. De infographic biedt verder de mogelijkheid om door te linken naar meer specifieke beschrijvingen per team/interventie.
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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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