This conceptual paper describes the role of research in bachelor programs at Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) . It presents a model for the integration of research activities into student assignments. The model makes it possible to distinguish between different levels of research. The model can be helpful in designing research education for professional bachelor students and developing practice-based assignments to assess research competences.
De invoering van de bachelor-masterstructuur was aanleiding voor de HBO-I stichting, het samenwerkingsverband van hbo ict-opleidingen in Nederland, om de oude opleidings- en beroepsprofielen (2000) aan te passen aan de nieuwe ontwikkelingen in het Europese hoger onderwijs. In nauwe samenwerking met het bedrijfsleven heeft de HBO-I stichting vijftien bouwstenen voor competenties geformuleerd. Deze vormen de basis van de competenties die een pas afgestudeerde Bachelor of ICT, ook in internationaal perspectief, dient te bezitten. Competenties krijgen betekenis in een context. Daarom staat in het profiel een aantal karakteristieke in rekle beroepssituaties beschreven waar een pas afgestudeerde Bachelor of ICT daadwerkelijk in de praktijk mee te maken kan krijgen. De context waarin een Bachelor of ICT fungeert, bepaalt het individuele competentieprofiel. De context bepaalt tevens het niveau waarop de afgestudeerde Bachelor of ICT over de specifieke beroepscompetenties dient te beschikken. Het ict-domein is zeer breed. De nieuwe profielbeschrijving biedt ruimte aan hogescholen om specifieke invulling te geven aan hun onderwijsprogramma s die studenten opleiden tot Bachelor of ICT. Bij het (her)ontwerpen van deze onderwijsprogramma s kunnen de bouwstenen voor competenties uitstekend dienst doen. Het is aan de instelling om een specifieke invulling te geven aan een opleidingsprogramma dat de beschreven bouwstenen voor competenties omvat. Het profiel is ook een referentiekader voor de arbeidsmarkt om zicht te krijgen op wat iemand met die graad in huis heeft. En het is tevens een referentiekader voor aankomende studenten, schooldecanen en beroeps- en studiekeuzeadviseurs om gevoel te krijgen voor het werkveld van ict ers en voor de onderwijswegen daar naartoe. Binnen het nieuwe profiel van de Bachelor of ICT blijven bestaande ict-opleidingen als beroepsprofielen herkenbaar. Ook andere opleidingen leiden op tot Bachelor of ICT. Naast de bekende profielen kunnen in de toekomst andere opleidingsvarianten ontstaan. Voor al deze varianten, bestaand of toekomstig, vervullen de bouwstenen voor competenties de rol van een generieke profielbeschrijving. De opzet van het competentieprofiel is zodanig dat er uitdrukkelijk ruimte is voor opleidingen in individuele studenten om een breder opleidingsprofiel te kiezen. Daarmee is de nieuwe profielbeschrijving voorbereid op het ontstaan van een zogenaamde brede bachelor of ICT.
This article aims to explore the moral ideas and experiences that students at Dutch universities of applied sciences (UAS) have of being a professional with an ‘ethical compass.’Semi-structured interviews were held with 36 fourth-year Bachelor students divided over four institutions and three different programmes: Initial Teacher Educa- tion, Business Services and Information and Communication Technology. Findings show that students say they strive to be(come) moral professionals, but that they have difficulties recognising and articulating the moral aspects of their professional roles. They seem to lack a moral vocabulary and the moral knowledge to verbalise their aspirations and to provide arguments to explicate or legitimise their moral behaviour. While most students were critical of the support they received from their universities, they indicated that various other role models and (work) experiences did have a strong and positive influence on their moral development. In this article, we reflect on the findings in relation to international empirical research on students’ moral development and highlight the characteristics of UAS students.
Students in Higher Music Education (HME) are not facilitated to develop both their artistic and academic musical competences. Conservatoires (professional education, or ‘HBO’) traditionally foster the development of musical craftsmanship, while university musicology departments (academic education, or ‘WO’) promote broader perspectives on music’s place in society. All the while, music professionals are increasingly required to combine musical and scholarly knowledge. Indeed, musicianship is more than performance, and musicology more than reflection—a robust musical practice requires people who are versed in both domains. It’s time our education mirrors this blended profession. This proposal entails collaborative projects between a conservatory and a university in two cities where musical performance and musicology equally thrive: Amsterdam (Conservatory and University of Amsterdam) and Utrecht (HKU Utrechts Conservatorium and Utrecht University). Each project will pilot a joint program of study, combining existing modules with newly developed ones. The feasibility of joint degrees will be explored: a combined bachelor’s degree in Amsterdam; and a combined master’s degree in Utrecht. The full innovation process will be translated to a transferable infrastructural model. For 125 students it will fuse praxis-based musical knowledge and skills, practice-led research and academic training. Beyond this, the partners will also use the Comenius funds as a springboard for collaboration between the two cities to enrich their respective BA and MA programs. In the end, the programme will diversify the educational possibilities for students of music in the Netherlands, and thereby increase their professional opportunities in today’s job market.
Within the framework of the “Greening Games” project, we will develop, test and distribute flagship didactic materials addressing the interdisciplinary nature of green digital gaming. These will be tested in selected higher education programs and finally shared as open access content for the broader academic and teaching community. It is our core strategic responsibility to educate students about the relations between digital games and environment. We believe that the more aware students of today will become greener game designers, programmers, and academic leaders of tomorrow. At the centre of our partnership’s didactic philosophy are human responsibility, ethical game design and sustainable gaming culture. Societal IssueVideo games serve as technological marvels and cultural reflections. McKenzie Wark suggests they are integral to a shared culture, fostering critical thinking. Games act as arenas for cultural values and environmental awareness. Climate-aware video games, often referred to as 'green games' or 'eco-games,' raise ecological consciousness and reconnect players with nature. For example, Riders Republic, which replicates real-world terrain using satellite imagery, inspires eco-awareness. However, the environmental footprint of video games, reliant on digital electronics and resource-intensive consoles, poses challenges. Developers, manufacturers, and gaming giants must address these impacts. Benjamin Abraham emphasizes sustainable game development as a holistic solution beyond incorporating green content.Benefit to societyBy developing teaching materials on green gaming for higher education, we create the following impact. We will…- increase the awareness of this subject among Bachelor’s and Master’s students.- enhance students’ knowledge of green gaming and their ability to integrate existing solutions into their game projects.- stimulate more research interest among research staff as well as students.- facilitate the uptake of pedagogical resources on green gaming by lecturers and professors.- create a European research community around the topic.- raise the visibility of green game studies among the game industry and wider public.
This proposal originates from a pilot of the ‘Frontrunners coalition’ on initiatives for the Circular Economy at the city level. This spin off project studies strategizing in hotels, to find innovative solutions how to manage the integration of circularity in the overall business strategy. The theoretical innovation is to better understand the strategizing process by using the theoretical framework of “strategy-as-practices (S-as-P)”. Exploring in two cases the daily challenges of implementing principles of the circular economy at a luxury and a budget hotel (group). The “strategy-as-practices (S-as-P) framework will be used, emphasizing that strategizing is a joint process of (higher) management and other practitioners (within and outside of the company). The data collection and analysis will be executed by Bachelor and Master students of Hotelschool the Hague and faculty of the research centre. The stages of the Design Oriented Research Approach will be used in this project, with a focus on the stages of Analysis & Diagnoses and Solution Design. The hotels will facilitate this research by giving access and support to the operations and (formal) meetings and additional primary data collection. (Small teams of) Student researchers collect qualitative data based on interviews and observations: they will ‘blend’ in during a 10-week period. Faculty of Hotelschool The Hague will safeguard the continuity and alignment in the project in the several rounds in which these steps are executed. The finding will be presented to the participating companies, the coalition in Amsterdam and the Hospitality industry. Direct societal impact is the showcasing of potential initiative and the responsibility of organizations towards circularity in their environment. Another result is the proposal for a larger follow-up project. This larger project will continue this study within a broader set of hotels but will also be studying and developing potential interventions for improvement the strategizing process.
