Education Pioneers

If the university wants to educate students so that they can handle complex issues in today’s society – climate change, inequality, robotisation – it needs to take a fundamentally different approach, says education pioneer Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens.

The way universities organise their education is no longer up to date, says Farshida Zafar. She draws inspiration from unexpected quarters: the game world. “It’s far better to let students determine their own route.”

It sounds too good to be true. A simple promise at the beginning of the first year which made the results shoot up. But with the I WILL goal-setting programme, educational pioneer Michaéla Schippers shows that it can be done.

Surely a university, of all organisations, would not do things without properly researching them first? Well, it does, according to psychologist Guus Smeets, who advocates more ‘evidence-based practice’ in the education system. “There are much more efficient ways to teach students.”

Offer all medical students equal opportunities in education in order to create diversity among doctors’ ranks. This has been Karen Stegers-Jager’s crusade over the past ten years, both within and outside Erasmus MC, a crusade that in recent years has been enjoying increasing success.