Significant questions in vocational and higher education | Npuls themes
Npuls funds two themes within the new grant round ‘Significant questions in vocational and higher education 2025.’ This grant stimulates practice-oriented research to address questions that will be relevant to the entire vocational and higher education sector in the Netherlands for the coming ±10 years. Below is more information about the Npuls themes.
About the research call
The research programme “Significant questions in vocational and higher education” aims to answer questions that arise from educational practice. The programme seeks to contribute to the innovation and improvement of the entire education sector in the Netherlands. The research is conducted directly within educational practice and takes place in close collaboration between researchers and practice professionals throughout the entire process.
The themes funded by Npuls investigate educational innovation with digitisation, where researchers and teachers in vocational, higher professional, and academic education sectors collaborate closely. This means that projects for these themes must address all three sectors.
For more information about the research call, conditions, and planning, see the website of the NRO.
More information about the Npuls themes
Themes 8 and 9 of the research call “Significant questions in vocational and higher education” are the Npuls themes. Below is summary of the theme and a detailed explanation.
Theme 8: Learning without barriers
Based on the close collaboration between vocational training schools (mbo), universities of applied science (hbo) and research universities (wo), this theme explores what it means to learn without organisational and administrative barriers for learners in tertiary education in the Netherlands and what they need to develop to their full potential.
Examples of research questions are: What are the criteria the educational institution has to meet to be able to offer learning without barriers? What do educational institutions need to know to organise a coherent educational programme and what does this mean for education professionals? What do learners need to have agency over their learning pathways? And to make use of the options of flexibly organised education? And how can vocational education and training schools (mbo), universities of applied science (hbo) and research universities (wo) work closely together and learn from each other?
Theme 9: The impact of new technologies on the quality of education
Research into the impact of new technologies on the quality of tertiary education is necessary to gain more insight into the opportunities and pitfalls. Relevant questions for the collaboration between vocational training schools (mbo), universities of applied science (hbo) and research universities (wo) in the Netherlands are for example: What could these technologies mean for designing the learning processes and the learning environment? How can these new technologies help to improve the quality and inclusivity of education? How can these new technologies contribute to making learning materials more easily accessible and easier to use? What are critical success factors? And: What do these new technologies mean for the digital literacy of education professionals?