“A personalised learning pathway does justice to a learner’s individual needs” 

“I sometimes compare the education system with public transport: of course it is great if Utrecht has a very well organised transport network. But if you cannot go to Amsterdam to visit the Rijksmuseum, that is a huge waste. So someone can study physics, but also be interested in how to make instruments. However, nowadays the knowledge areas are so big that as an educational institution you can never offer everything. That is why it is important to work together and raise each institution’s profile. WUR, for instance, has a very clear Life Science profile. It is a matter of choosing what you will and will not do. Data and technology support this: for example, it is fantastic if you can use data to advise students in their learning pathway.”

“Agile education and the associated student mobility require a cultural change in which institutions start thinking more broadly and look at the bigger picture. You simply can no longer offer all the knowledge of a domain through one programme. This means that you specialise as an educational institution: you give up elements – such as the things we all offer in principle but which another institution does just that little bit better – and profile yourself in specific knowledge areas. You can then cooperate more on the basis of your own strengths. But this is not always easy: we are all not yet used to thinking this way and you have to deal with things like funding, sharing learning materials and how we offer courses in terms of location – all on campus, online, blended?”

“In part, we all do the same thing. How nice is it to collaborate on that and actually complement each other.”

“There are already alliances, such as LDE for Leiden, Delft and Eindhoven. Or which I myself am part of: the EWUU for Eindhoven, Wagingen, Utrecht and Utrecht UMC. We have certain areas where our expertise is very complementary, such as preventive health and circular society. We want to use that instead of competing with each other in this. That is also why I find it very interesting to follow the University of the North. Universities, colleges and MBO schools work together at regional level in this. That is good, because I notice that when cooperating, one often quickly looks internationally – and that is also very valuable in terms of knowledge and culture – but above all, do not forget the region. Here, too, there is an awful lot of knowledge and thus opportunities just around the corner.”

“I know from my own experience that in advance you never know where a specific learning pathway will lead. I once started studying Biology, then studied and practised Classical music and then continued with Psychology. I always did whole studies – that’s how it was in my time – but also courses to brush up. And now I am Programme Director at the WUR and deal with making the education system more flexible. I could never have imagined this beforehand: in my view, it is therefore important not to think too linearly about the development of someone’s skills and their future employability. The education system has a hugely important role in facilitating this as much as possible.”

“We need an infrastructure like public transport: you offer an awful lot of options in the easiest way possible, and everyone uses it in the way that suits them.”

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