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.
European civic integration programmes claim to provide newcomers with necessary tools for successful participation. Simultaneously, these programmes have been criticised for being restrictive, market-driven and for working towards an implicit goal of limiting migration. Authors have questioned how these programmes discursively construct an offensive image of the Other and how colonial histories are reproduced in the constructions seen today. The Dutch civic integration programme is considered a leading example of a restrictive programme within Europe. Research has critically questioned the discourses within its policies, yet limited research has moved beyond policy to focus on discourse in texts in practice. This study presents a critical discourse analysis of texts used in the civic integration programme and demonstrates that they participate in multiple discursive constructions: the construction of the Dutch nation-state and its citizens as inherently modern, the construction of the Other as Unmodern and thus a threat, and the construction of the hierarchical relationship between the two. The civic integration programme has been left out of discussions on decolonisation to date, contributing to it remaining a core practice of othering. This study applies post-colonial theories to understand the impacts of current discourse, and forwards possibilities for consideration of decolonised alternatives.
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.
Wat zijn de effecten wanneer men altijd 1,5 meter afstand van ‘de ander’ moet bewaren? Wat betekent dat voor de manier waarop mensen zich tot elkaar verhouden? Hoe beïnvloed dat een wijk of een buurt? En wat betekent dat dan voor mensen zelf? Het doel van de challenge is om inzicht te krijgen in de effecten van COVID-19 op de sociale dynamiek in de wijk Leiden Noord en de bewoners op een vernieuwende manier deelgenoot te maken van de resultaten. Vanuit multidisciplinaire achtergronden gaan studenten de wijk in en onderzoeken ze vanuit eigen expertise wat er gebeurt tussen de mensen en groepen in de wijk. Kunst staat hierin centraal. In samenwerking met het lokale kunstenaarsplatform Liquid Society worden de opgehaalde inzichten verwerkt in een artistieke vorm met fysieke pop-up locaties in de wijk. De pop-up locaties gelden als plek van interactie en contemplatie op de huidige samenleving. Deze locaties worden verbonden door een route waar tours, interventies en discussies georganiseerd en geprogrammeerd kunnen worden. De input en activiteiten worden vastgelegd in een videoverslag, zodat de resultaten voor iedereen toegankelijk en beschikbaar blijven. In de challenge kunnen studenten binnen de honoursprogramma’s van Hogeschool Leiden en Universiteit Leiden studiepunten verdienen. Ook studenten Toegepaste Psychologie kunnen binnen hun curriculum aansluiten. Na vooronderzoek in de wijk vanuit eigen expertise starten alle studenten van beide instellingen met een gezamenlijke inspiratie en uitwisselingssessie. Er wordt wederom gezamenlijk afgesloten met een tour lang de pop-up locaties. De challenge zal een aantal maanden na de opening van de kenniswinkel Leren met de Stad | Op Locatie van start gaan. De doelstelling van deze kenniswinkel is om vanuit een fysieke locatie in de wijk een rijke leeromgeving aan studenten te bieden waar zij aan maatschappelijke vraagstukken kunnen werken. Vanuit deze rol zullen zij de challenge coördineren.
