In June the course ‘Professional Leadership in Education’ got underway at Utrecht University for the fifteenth time. TU/e policy officer Lilian Halsema says that TU/e has acquired the course “in a form tailored to suit TU/e” and that in June of last year fourteen people started the course. They are all individuals closely involved in the professionalization and innovation of education, such as program directors, and all of whom but one finished the course. On Monday afternoon their course was drawn to a festive close with their graduation ceremony.

The study program included eight two-day sessions, lectures by guest speakers and a study trip to four English universities. During the course, the participants, who were proposed by their deans, worked on an educational issue currently affecting their own department. They were also trained to encourage and support the continued development of the education provided within their department.

Enthusiastic

Miguel Bruns, one of the founders of TU/e innovation Space and responsible for the development of the innoSpace educational vision, is enthusiastic about his own participation in the course. “You have to be willing to make the investment, because it is not something minor that you tack onto your regular job.”

Bruns' focus during the course was on the further development of 'squads'. As program director, he implemented this concept four years ago at Industrial Design. “Squads are groups of twenty to forty students drawn not only from a range of disciplines but also from different year groups, so Bachelor's and Master's students, as well as doctoral candidates, alumni and researchers are all mixed in together. One of the advantages is that the older students can pass on what they've learned at first hand to the younger students, such as how to work in a team. This takes some of the weight off the lecturer's shoulders and teaches the older students something about leadership. In smaller groups, the squad members studied all kinds of aspects of a challenge, such as how smart materials could be used for haptic feedback in the context of semi-autonomous vehicles. The aim is that all the projects ultimately contribute to the continued development of the study or its possible application.” The aim of Bruns' project during the course was to further extend this concept to the interdisciplinary context of TU/e innovation Space.