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Windesheim makes knowledge work

Windesheim Institutional Plan

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

Modern professional practice is subject to continuous innovation and therefore requires knowledge

and reflection

Frans Leijnse, when opening Windesheim's academic year 2010

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Contents

Foreword 4

Review 6

Profiling 8

Education 10

Research 12

Entrepreneurship 14

The valuable/principled professional 16

Internationalization 18

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Foreword

This Institutional Plan for the period 2013-2017 describes where Windesheim wants to be in 2017

and what getting there will entail. The Institutional Plan therefore serves as the general framework

for everything the university of applied sciences intends to do in the years ahead.

Over the last twenty-five years, Windesheim has established a solid basis. A basis that we can be

proud of. This Institutional Plan builds upon the ambitions described in the previous Institutional

Plan: to reinforce the culture of quality and to develop the university into a knowledge centre. The

social and economic developments now shaping higher education accentuate those ambitions.

The time when an establishment such as ours could simply sit back and wait for the annual influx

of students is past. The emphasis has shifted from quantity to quality. Social relevance and

qualitative challenge are now more important than ever, while transparency and measurability have

become absolute requirements. At the same time, Windesheim's ambition now extends further and

Windesheim offers more: our graduates enter society as valuable and principled professionals.

In the coming years, Windesheim will strengthen its position as a broad, innovative knowledge

centre. Windesheim believes in openness and engagement with the wider community. Our own

identity and our ties with the region will be strengthened further. And we will follow through on the

implications which that philosophy has for the way education and research are organized. Constant

consideration will be given to the effectiveness of our support processes and professionalism

within the organization.

The main features of Windesheim's ambition for the period ahead are:

To create a more ambitious study climate. The bar will be raised, so that students enter the

labour market with the strongest possible starting position. We want our Graduates to

contribute to innovation in the business community and wider society by taking up leading

roles in their chosen professions.

To educate our students to be valuable and principled professionals: people who are not

merely professionally competent but comfortable dealing with matters of principle.

To continue strengthening Windesheim's ties within the region by expanding collaborative

activities, thus also enhancing innovation in the business community.

To further professionalize the teaching staff by continuing to refine their subject expertise

and didactic capabilities, as well as their research skills and the quality of their research

products.

To reinforce the research climate, e.g. by increasing opportunities for staff to develop their

careers and continue training, and thus to play a more influential role in the region and the

education sector.

This Institutional Plan describes Windesheim's ambitions for the years ahead, particularly the

period up to 2017.

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Review

In 2007, Windesheim stood on the threshold of its transformation from university of applied

sciences to knowledge centre. The 'enhanced and enhancing' ambitions set out in the Institutional

Plan 2007-2012 related mainly to the expansion of the university's traditional activities. Extension

of the research portfolio, the excellence pathways and other diversification initiatives, such as

flexible learning routes, were also addressed. The document additionally defined objectives for

improving educational quality and for professionalization of the organization.

Midway through the period covered by the plan, a strategic review was undertaken. The review

was motivated partly by practical considerations: the plan simply contained more objectives than

could be realized in the defined timeframe. However, the substance of some objectives was also

reconsidered in the light of the changing education landscape. The merger with the VU University

was reversed, for example. Closer educational collaboration between Windesheim and the VU

University was ultimately judged to be neither feasible nor desirable.

In the changed circumstances, the focus was narrowed to a small number of priorities. The

following results were ultimately achieved:

The quality of education was enhanced by improving the performance of the examination

boards and degree programme committees, overhauling the student career counselling

arrangements, introducing Provisional Study Recommendations, forging ties between teaching

and research and establishing the Windesheim Honours College.

Research activities were given a quality uplift by organizing them into five research centres and

by seeking closer alignment with the themes that are important to the regional SME sector. The

range of contract education on offer was critically reviewed and refocused on core services.

The qualification level of the staff was increased. Lecturers are now expected to adopt a twin-

track approach to professionalization, in which both didactic capability and expertise in

professional practice are pursued.

Windesheim in Dialogue was set up as a special instrument to promote identity development

and initiate debate with the wider community regarding matters of principle.

A more professional culture was promoted within Windesheim. The staff planning and

evaluation cycle was developed into a management tool and used to focus on leadership

development. A new management information system was rolled out.

Development of the organization led to the eleven educational departments being grouped into

four domains and the six support departments into three services. The changes led to

improved process integration and thus to more effective cooperation between education,

research and entrepreneurship.

Windesheim Flevoland was built up and its activities broadened. The number of programmes

on offer was increased, resulting in the provision of eighteen full-time programmes in Almere.

Windesheim's finances were brought under control. Solvency was restored to 25 per cent and

both budget supervision and the planning and control cycle were upgraded.

Subtitled 'Enhanced and enhancing', the previous Institutional Plan covered both students and

staff. The intention was that enhancing the university by adding research activities would provide

students and staff with greater opportunity to develop their various talents. The plan has certainly

succeeded in that regard. By broadening its horizons, Windesheim has in recent years facilitated

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realization of its ambition: to play a valuable and principled role in the community. That remains the

objective and is the starting point for the new Institutional Plan.

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Profiling

Quality and collaboration with the wider community are to be the priorities. Alumni and lecturers

should have an enterprising and enquiring attitude. They are expected to be valuable and

principled professionals: responsible and honest. While those characteristics distinguish

Windesheim on a fundamental level, the university has additionally identified four specific profile

characteristics: SME, Innovation, Young & Old and Education. Windesheim's profile characteristics

are aligned with the needs of the regional community and reflect the role that Windesheim wishes

to play. The profile characteristics are also the basis for the focus on national top sectors

(government-led), research centres (research at the university) and (international) collaboration.

The relevant themes have been translated into the research centres through which research and

education (the top programmes) are organized. The cohesion between research, education and

entrepreneurship is particularly close where the profile themes are concerned.

Windesheim's profile is reflected in its strategy and policy.

Figure 1. Profile characteristics with top programmes and research centres

(*Theology and Philosophy covers the programmes Theology, Teacher Training:

Religion & Philosophy and the master's programme First-Degree Teacher Training:

Religion)

Broad high-level base

Innovation

SME

Valuable and

principled profession

al Young &

Old

Education

Media Research

Centre

Research Centre Health

Care and Social Work

Research Centre

Human Movement

and Education

Entrepreneurship Research Centre

Technology Research Centre

Educational Theory Applied Gerontology

Journalism

Industrial Product Design Business Engineering Mechanical Engineering Business IT & Management

Small Business and Retail Management Accountancy Master of Business Administration (MBA) Windesheim Honours College

Master Special

Educational Needs Teacher Training: Primary Education Theology and Philosophy*

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Education

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

All Windesheim programmes rated above the national average.

Sixteen top programmes nationally distinctive in terms of one of the profile characteristics

(SME, Young and Old, Innovation, Education) and in terms of valuable and principled

professionalism.

Three honours programmes externally certified as promoting excellence in higher

education.

A new didactic concept which challenges and empowers students to make the most of their

abilities introduced to all degree programmes.

Valuable and principled professionalism integral to all programmes.

80 per cent of lecturers have a master's degree and 10 per cent have a doctorate.

Additional resources available for the primary process (the ratio between teaching staff and

support personnel up from 1.51 to 1.71).

Drop-out rate in the first year of degree programmes cut to 34 per cent by effective student

counselling.

Of those students who complete the first year, 85 per cent of the 2013 intake cohort go on

to achieve a bachelor's degree.

An ambitious study climate

Windesheim will challenge its students to make the most of their capacity for valuable and

principled professionalism. The university of applied sciences should be attractive to students who

are willing to work hard and perform well. In spring 2013, Windesheim started on the development

of a new didactic concept. By 2017, all programmes will apply the new concept and an ambitious

study climate will exist. Windesheim will additionally provide more scope for blended learning and

for location- and time-independent learning.

Students who are ready for an additional challenge can take interdisciplinary minors and/or an

honours program. The university is to operate honours programme, which are international,

multidisciplinary and extracurricular, and use English as their language of instruction.

Windesheim will also make certain requirements of its students. Binding study recommendations

will be set at a more ambitious level: at least 50 ECs1 in the years ahead. The opportunities for

retesting are to be limited and resits are to be organized to take place as soon as possible

following the first examinations. The aim of more ambitious binding study recommendations and

the stricter testing policy is to minimize delays before students enter the main phase of their degree

programme.

1 Study credits recognized in European Credit Transfer System.

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Programme selection and successful outcomes

Making an informed and considered choice of study programme reduces the likelihood of the

student dropping out and increases the likelihood of the student achieving a bachelor's degree. In

order to influence the quality of incoming students, the university will provide prospective students

with a clear picture of what it is like to study at Windesheim and to follow the programme they are

considering. Intake interviews and transparent information will play key roles in that context. All

prospective students will be able to learn about the university and its programmes from taster

sessions, internships and preparatory modules. Testing to identify deficiencies and diagnostic self-

testing will also be available.

All students are to receive intensive guidance and counselling with a view to supporting their

studies and their personal well-being. Guidance and counselling will be geared to the individual

needs of the student. Students must be given the sense that they matter as individuals.

Windesheim will advise students about their progress from an early stage in their university

careers; each student will receive a provisional study recommendation, whose conclusions are

explained and justified, before February.

Students who, after starting a programme, decide to switch to another programme at Windesheim

are to be given proper support and advice. Intensive, prompt contact means that students who may

have made the wrong decision can be identified quickly and helped to find a more appropriate

programme.

High-quality education

Windesheim will work continuously to maintain and improve the quality of its education. All

programmes will be of a quality above the national average2. Sixteen programmes linked to the

profile themes have been identified as 'top programmes'. A top programme is distinct from other

programmes insofar as Windesheim's external partners clearly indicate that the programme is

exemplary in a national or international context and insofar as the programme itself identifies one

or more elements or aspects as distinctive. In that context, the partners in question may

(depending on the field in which the programme seeks to distinguish itself) be the profession,

students, professional groups or other knowledge centres. External partners' opinions of the

programme will also be incorporated into the formal accreditation process for each programme. For

a top programme, accreditation must yield a better than satisfactory grading on all standards.

Educational quality is to be improved in three ways: by implementing a new didactic concept, by

increasing the quality of the lecturers and by continuously reinforcing the link between education

and research via recognizable research learning lines.

Lecturers are to exhibit professionalism in terms of both their specialist expertise and their didactic

capability. 80 per cent of lecturers will have a master's degree and 10 per cent a doctorate: all new

lecturer appointees will have a master's degree and new head lecturer appointees will have a

doctorate. Lecturers must also be competent to provide education in an intercultural setting. In

professional practice, graduates need to have an enquiring and reflective attitude. The promotion

of such an attitude will play a key role in programme quality improvement through explicit linkage to

research. In support of Windesheim's aims in this area, research learning lines have been

extended further. Because the programmes are closely associated with research centres and

Centres of Expertise, the education will incorporate the latest insights. Lecturers are to set an

2 To determine whether a programme’s quality is above-average, Windesheim refers to the Higher Education

Selection Guide, the scores on some of the items in the National Student Survey and the Higher Professional Education Monitor results.

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example to students in the way they handle ethical matters in professional practice.

Educational quality improvement is to be supported financially by making additional resources

available for the primary process. To that end, Windesheim is committed to reducing its indirect

cost base. Furthermore, greater emphasis will be placed on the quality of education in the planning

and control cycle. The quality of education needs to be integral to the culture of quality control and

quality improvement. Accountable teams will use the internal quality cycle as one of their primary

tools.

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Interview

'I still love this field'

Mariska Venema, Lecturer for Writing and Handwriting Development, Windesheim Flevoland:

'I taught group 3 children for many years and was always fascinated to see how quickly children

pick things up. They arrive in September hardly able to read a word or write their names. Yet, by

Christmas, they are reading and writing fluently. And by the time they move on to the next school

year, they are really proud of what they can do – they have learnt how to communicate on paper.'

'I first came into contact with this field as a trainee teacher and fell in love with it. How do you teach

children to hold a pen or to develop legible handwriting? What do you do if a child is having trouble

learning to write, perhaps because of a learning difficulty or less well-developed motor skills? I

made this branch of didactics my specialist field.'

'I regard it as a real positive that I am also able to develop myself across the breadth of the

profession. My role involves acting as a student counsellor and internship supervisor. So I still get

to visit primary schools, observe classes, and see how teaching practice is changing and what is

required to be teacher. Until recently, I was also Coordinator of the Education and Development

Expertise Centre, which provides refresher courses. But I have had to let that role go: I had to

prioritize, because I’m getting my master's degree in September. I would never want to move away

from this field, though: I still love it.'

'Windesheim is a large university, so there are lots of opportunities. I feel that it offers scope for me

to realize my ambitions. I love developing new material, for example, and I often publish articles on

writing and handwriting development. A colleague at the Marnix Academy and I have also set up a

quality register: the Handwriting and Keyboard Skills Didactics Teacher Quality Register. The

initiative supports the ministry's aim of making the quality of higher education demonstrable and

measurable. And I'm all for quality.'

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Interview

'Education should challenge you to gain experience'

Gerjan Schoenmaker, third-year Social Work & Social Services student and Student-Vice-Chair of

Windesheim's Central Participation Council (CMR):

'At the start of my second year, I worked one day a week as an intern at an organization I already

knew. The plan was to do some research there, but things didn't work out as planned. I'm a doer,

so as soon as I arrived, I got drawn in to what was happening there. And completely lost my way.

My supervisor was gradually able to show me where I had gone wrong: the essential steps I had

missed. Of course, Windesheim does not train us to become academic researchers; that’s what

research universities are for. But you still need to be able to do research within your profession,

don't you? So research skills are vitally important.'

'I also think that the focus on research encourages students to take a broader view of things. The

same goes for the emphasis on entrepreneurship. You learn that independent reflection will take

you further than just copying what others do. The more experience you get while studying, the

better, I'd say. Education should challenge you to gain that kind of experience.'

'A good lecturer can do that by being in tune with the target group and by being involved. What

else? A good lecturer's door is always open, literally and figuratively. A good lecturer is also

someone who really knows their subject and is didactically professional. Someone who has all the

basics sorted – practical things such as knowing how to connect a projector. Those things may

sound trivial, but they really make a difference to how the teaching goes.'

'Personally, I have put studying on the back burner for a year. Last year, I realized that I needed

another challenge. So I decided to focus on representing students' interests. I am fascinated by

organizational processes. As well as being a member of the CMR, I chair the Zwolle Students'

Forum (SOOZ), an offshoot of the National Students' Union.'

'In my view, education shouldn't simply be about what happens on the university campus. And I

think that there's a real danger of an increased emphasis on performance leading to that. It's

something that we often discuss within the CMR. Having a mix of university and non-university

activities is very valuable, I feel. But heightened study pressure can discourage students from

taking a broader view.'

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Research

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

Centres of Expertise contributing to regional development by doing research to order, thus

increasing the return on research.

Lecturer involvement in research up from 125 to 200 research group members.

Proportion of all lecturers who have doctorates up from 4 per cent in 2012 to 10 per cent by

2017.

Number of professorships up to thirty, with parallel growth in the number of professors and

associate professors.

Continued growth in the number of grants received.

Several Windesheim projects funded by Europe's Horizon 2020 programme.

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An inspiring knowledge centre

Windesheim will continue to develop as a knowledge centre. Research activities will increase in

number and volume, guided by the three characteristic properties of Windesheim research.

First, research is to be practice-oriented: it aims to improve the various fields of professional

practice for which Windesheim trains its graduates. The research questions are to be formulated in

consultation with the relevant professions and the results are fed back to the fields where the

problems arose. The research will be carried out in accordance with scientific quality criteria.

Second, research is to be increasingly intertwined with education, both in its execution and in

terms of the use of its results. Research is to be carried out not only by professors, research group

members and PhD students, but also by other lecturers and students. The results will be fed back

into the educational process, thus ensuring that the challenges and education provided for

students are informed by the latest insights. This process is to be implemented via the research

learning lines integrated into every programme. Windesheim is convinced that knowledge

production is the foundation of professionally oriented higher education and conducive to the

delivery of higher-quality professional practitioners.

Third, Windesheim research is to be aligned with the needs of the region. Integration within the

region is also to be promoted by collaborative ties that reinforce the business community's capacity

for innovation.

Along with other knowledge centres, Windesheim will participate in a number of Centres of

Expertise:

High Tech Systems and Materials (HTSM) East

Open Chemical Innovation Smart & Biobased Materials North-East Netherlands

Technical Education (TSE-CTO)

Logistics Knowledge Distribution Centre North-East.

Windesheim and other knowledge centres will also participate in the Primary Education Expertise

Centre (EXPO).

As a knowledge centre, Windesheim wants to inspire students, lecturers and entrepreneurs in the

region to make innovations that promote social advancement.

Valorization

In the period ahead, research will be given impetus by collaboration with other knowledge centres

and market actors in Centres of Expertise, in. Characterized by innovation and excellence, the

centres will be venues for top-quality research.

More grants will be secured, partly as a result of the development of an infrastructure for funding

acquisition. Support with application procedures and the sharing of best practices will be

centralized and a review committee will be set up to consider applications before they go forward.

Through its valorization activities, Windesheim will make a demonstrable contribution to the

innovative capacity of the region and to modernity within the relevant professions.

Human resources

Windesheim provides an inspiring research climate. The proportion of lecturers involved in

research is to be increased, along with the numbers of professors and associate professors.

Windesheim is to be an attractive employer for research personnel, as demonstrated by a

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balanced HRM policy. Lecturer appointees will be selected for their excellence and affinity with

research; these lecturers can aspire to scales 13 and 14. Professors may be appointed for periods

of more than four years and the minimum job size for a professorship is to be 0.8 FTEs.

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Interview

'Research reveals hidden worlds. I think that's very worthwhile.'

Anne-May The, Professor of Palliative Care, Ethics and Communication:

'They are self-contained worlds. You can walk past a hospital or nursing home every day and have

no idea what goes on inside. They have their own rules, their own leaders. I find that kind of thing

fascinating. It was brought home to me again when I spent two years doing research at a nursing

home in my home town, Amsterdam. I wrote about my experiences in my book In de wachtkamer

van de dood (In death's waiting room). That nursing home had always been there, just around the

corner. So close and yet so far from my own world.'

'Dementia, palliative care, suffering, death and euthanasia: those are the research themes of the

professorship. We are constantly asking ourselves what the rules are, how something will work in

practice. It's a quite different perspective from that taken by a doctor, whose aim is healing. The

legislature has another perspective still, which is based on a rational perception of care. The

legislature assumes that people can make choices. Consequently, the Euthanasia Act is not

designed for people with dementia. The next step is therefore to ask: what actually happens in

practice?'

'Take the issue of reanimation in hospital. In order to study the social context of euthanasia

decisions, I spent quite some time at a university hospital. While I was there, the question of

whether a patient should be reanimated came up. Who has to take that decision? In practice, it

seems, it's often the nursing staff. Formally, however, it is the doctor who is supposed to decide, on

medical grounds. But, in practice, what happens is that you might get nurses saying to the doctor:

‘do you really want to reanimate a patient as old and frail as this?'

'With our research into dementia, we want to chart the entire course of the condition, from

diagnosis to death. The aim is very practical: better care. Do we know what people with dementia

actually need? You can't establish that from a purely medical perspective, because the tragedy of

dementia isn't purely a medical matter. You have to take a more fundamental view.'

'The research portfolio is gradually filling up. With long-term projects and with smaller studies, such

as an internship in which students observe diagnostic consultations or graduation studies

addressing the role of lay carers. Each project and study reveals a little more of those hidden

worlds and thus contributes to our understanding of them. I think that's very worthwhile. Dementia

affects us all directly or indirectly. My hope is that our research will help people to be better

prepared.'

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Interview

'Windesheim can't do without the curiosity that goes with research'

Ineke van der Wal, Director of the Engineering and ICT Division, and Pien Versteegh, Director of

Support Services:

'Developing the University into a knowledge centre is an ambitious goal. It's not a question of

simply snapping your fingers. You have to create a climate in which transformation is possible.

What are the preconditions for applied research to flourish at Windesheim? It's our job to create

those conditions.'

Ineke van der Wal: 'To my mind, it's all about interfacing: interfacing with education and interfacing

with professional practice. It was years ago that we were first asked (by the Chamber of

Commerce) whether we could 'do something' with polymers. Our answer was that we didn't do

chemistry research, but that we were active in mechanical engineering and industrial product

design. We could provide added value when it came to machining polymers and process

optimization, we said. And I think I can say that the rest is history. Because polymers have become

a prominent theme in the new HTSM Centre of Expertise and the Open Chemical Innovation Smart

& Biobased Materials North-East Netherlands Centre of Expertise.'

'Interfacing depends on collaboration. Windesheim is doing just that. We can't create those five

Centres of Expertise on our own. And collaboration is an adventure! It opens up fantastic

prospects, but in practice it can also bring challenges, because it implies matching so many

divergent styles and cultures. It's like getting into three relationships at once: complicated but

exciting!'

'Soon, two thirds of our lecturers will be involved in research in one way or another. At present,

only 10 per cent are. Research broadens a lecturer's horizons. The enquiring attitude that goes

with research, the curiosity, we believe is very important. I don't honestly think that Windesheim

can do without that curiosity.'

Pien Versteegh: 'Another thing that makes applied research so valuable for education is that it

encourages people to be more outward-looking. For students, it's the link to professional practice.

Windesheim therefore wants to be an attractive employer for professors and lecturers with an

interest in research who can give substance to that bridging function. We are trying to achieve that

by creating an inspiring research climate and by developing the physical facilities for research.'

'We are gradually creating the research climate. Some things still have to be decided, though. Do

we want to focus on training our own researchers, or go for recruitment? And what about the

funding? Funding isn't guaranteed. Which is maybe a good thing, because it means we can never

forget that the knowledge we produce has to be of practical use; it has to have economic or social

value, or both. We are setting up a funding application infrastructure. And we are looking at ways of

getting exposure for our research achievements. There is still a lot to do. But that's inevitable with

the ambitious path we've chosen.'

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Entrepreneurship

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

15 per cent of total resources to come from sources other than the central government

grant and statutory tuition fees.

Important progress made with assisting students who want to start their own business.

Windesheim successful at reinforcing internal and external entrepreneurship.

Through entrepreneurship, Windesheim makes a visible contribution to social themes and

to businesses' and organizations' capacity for innovation.

Sharing knowledge

Windesheim has deep roots in the region and engages in entrepreneurship where that yields

added value for education and research. Sharing knowledge with the wider community is the

underlying objective and has a place in education. The aim is to grow entrepreneurship, in

combination with education and research, into a strong field of activity for Windesheim. By 2017,

the Polymer Science Park will have expanded further into a meeting and cooperation venue for

open innovation.

Entrepreneurship and education

Windesheim will offer contract education in fields of knowledge that tie in with the university's

mainstream educational provision and with regional requirements. Windesheim will provide

bespoke services, usually in partnership with the client organization. The range of profession-

oriented master's programmes, post-higher professional education programmes, courses and

training for professionals will be continually expanded. Delivery will increasingly be by means of

distance learning and blended learning.

Entrepreneurship is to be one of the vehicles used by lecturers to maintain and, where possible,

expand contact with professional practice. Students will be encouraged to be enterprising by, for

example, the TOP Entrepreneurs Programme. The tone will be set early in a student's university

career by the Entrepreneurs in Residence programme, through which enterprising CEOs and

managers from the regional business community come to deliver lectures and offer guidance to

students.

Entrepreneurship and research

Windesheim's ability to obtain external research funding is indicative of the social and economic

value of its research activities. Valorization is therefore a priority for Windesheim: reinforcing

relationships with enterprises across the region energizes the dissemination of knowledge. The

Centres of Expertise and Knowledge Gateway will play an important role in that context.

Valorization also provides opportunities for the university to replace diminishing government

funding by generating earnings from competitive products, services and processes. Through the

TOP Entrepreneurs Programme, assistance will be given to students who wish to combine their

studies with taking their first steps as independent entrepreneurs. As part of the valorization

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activities, a robust alumni policy will be developed.

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Interview

'Can you spot opportunities and are you prepared to work hard?'

Ilse Matser, Professor of Family Business Management:

'Making commercial use of all that knowledge seems like an obvious thing to do. In practice,

however, that can be a challenge for knowledge centres, and I think that Windesheim is no

exception in that respect. You don't do it to earn money, but to give depth to the education you

deliver. That limits your options. And, after all, your staff are not entrepreneurs but lecturers and

researchers. Entrepreneurship doesn't necessarily come naturally to them.'

'I'm a good example of that myself. I come from a family of business people. My parents were

always wrapped up in running the business. I studied Finance and Control and became a lecturer,

but felt drawn back to the family firm. I worked there for a year before coming to the conclusion

that, although I am enterprising by nature, I'm not an entrepreneur. So, when a research

opportunity came up, I took a doctorate in the field of entrepreneurship in the context of a family

business.'

'We study family businesses. Multinationals attract a lot of media attention and are seen as the

mecca by many employees, but the majority of our graduates work for SMEs. So it's simply not

correct to think of the way things work at a corporate entity as the norm. The dynamic in a family

business can be very different, precisely because of the family ties. Take the attitude towards profit

maximization: at a listed company, there is a lot of emphasis on making as much profit as possible,

whereas people in family businesses often take the view that profitability isn't the be all and end all.

Economists tend to overlook that.'

'The type of research we do can lead to products that Windesheim can take to market. For

example, because family firms don't usually have supervisory boards, but do often have a need for

someone for the management to bounce ideas off, we have been investigating the performance of

advisory councils. We have helped twenty firms to set up advisory councils and now we are

studying how they perform. If our research shows that the model does work, I can see a role for

Windesheim training people to sit on these councils.'

'Can you spot opportunities and are you prepared to work hard? In my eyes, that's what

entrepreneurship is all about, and a culture of entrepreneurship will benefit all parts of Windesheim.

So I'm a big supporter of the Entrepreneurs in Residence programme: more than twenty

enterprising CEOs and managers from around the region, who from time to time contribute their

expertise to the educational process and student counselling. Such people are the role models our

students need.'

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The valuable and principled professional

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

Valuable and principled professionalism features explicitly and demonstrably in all

bachelor's programme curriculums.

The minor 'Meaning for professionals' well known around the country; at least 30 per cent of

participants are from outside Windesheim.

Valuable and principled professionalism firmly rooted within the organization, regularly

discussed by service and division staff and serves as a guiding principle.

Regular, inspiring meetings between Windesheim and the wider community concerning

values that create tension and/or promote social advancement.

Community

It is consistent with Windesheim's tradition to encourage people to develop a vision of sustainable

community. Besides the knowledge and skills Windesheim students gain, they also develop a

professional attitude based on consciously embracing values and standards. The result will be

professionals who can critically review and discuss their own actions. Professionals who can use

values and standards as a reference framework to weigh up alternative courses of action and

justify the choices that they make. In short, people whom Windesheim is pleased to describe as

valuable and principled professionals.

Dialogue

The concept of valuable and principled professionalism will not only find expression through the

minor devoted to meaning, but will also be integrated across the curriculum on the basis of

continuous dialogue with students and staff. Indeed, thinking and working on the basis of valuable

and principled professionalism will be the norm for all Windesheim staff; valuable and principled

professionalism will be a constant topic of discussion and apparent in the university's day-to-day

life. Windesheim will also put into practice the philosophy that it expects of valuable and principled

professionals.

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Interview

'We talk about why we study and work here and not somewhere else'

Harry Frantzen, Director of Human Movement and Education:

'We want to learn. It's good to learn. Learning is a fascinating process; an exciting process in my

experience. That is why we have education. Not because it's been decreed that we all have to do

it. Not to provide some people with a nice job. Not to justify writing policy plans or to enable us to

impose our will on students. We come here – students and staff – because we like it; because we

feel at home here.'

'Space is essential. Students need space in order to develop and to take on responsibility. So

giving people space is perhaps our most important task here at Windesheim. That's not easy to do.

Just consider what faces the student: the wishes of society, the constraints of the educational

system, the requirements of the curriculum, the judgements of the staff and the expectations of the

study advisors. And then we say to the student: you are responsible for yourself … when in fact the

student can barely move for obligations. I feel that Windesheim has a duty to itself to seek out

space within that landscape.'

'We want our students to develop into valuable and principled professionals. We want them to

reflect on themselves, on their convictions and on their interaction with others. We also want them

to be able to talk to each other constructively about such matters. And, of course, they need space

to do that. The same goes for the staff. Today's Windesheim is the product of a Christian tradition

and, while we no longer provide what I would describe as Christian education as such, we do start

from the belief that philosophical elements have a place in education. Questions such as what life

is all about, what your underlying motives are, are not trivial side issues. They determine how you

act and feel day by day. So here at Windesheim we talk to each other about why we study and

work here and not somewhere else.'

'In the years ahead, we will be pressing ahead with this one step at a time. Groups of staff – from

caretaker to professor, from lecturer to administrator – engage in discussion and form new groups

with other staff. What drives you? Why do you work here? Those are the questions that come up.

The same philosophy will shortly find expression in the clear integration of valuable and principled

professionalism into the curriculum of every programme. And I hope that that won't be the end of

the process, but just the start.'

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Internationalization

What do we aim to achieve by 2017?

Internationalization intensified in the programmes by adding at least one international minor

per division to the English-language study provision.

Student mobility increased across the board: more international students attending

Windesheim and more Windesheim students going abroad.

More strategic partnerships with universities of applied sciences in other countries.

Lecturers have international competences in their fields and enhanced English language

skills.

Support and service provision within the organization geared to international mobility.

The internationalization of education

International education enhances graduates' professional prospects. Contact with other cultures

not only promotes personal development, but also provides students with international skills. By

embracing internationalization, Windesheim will align itself with the prevailing social trend.

In the field of internationalization, Windesheim currently lags behind other Dutch universities of

applied sciences. By 2017, that situation will have been corrected. Student mobility at Windesheim

is to increase further, to 10 per cent, with more students doing their internship abroad. International

internships will have to satisfy minimum quality requirements. Students' English-language skills are

to be improved and all students will acquire some international experience during the course of

their studies at Windesheim or elsewhere. All curriculums will consider how the profession is

developing in other countries. The internationalization of the curriculum will be intensified by the

addition of English-language minors, double degrees, honours programmes, Windesheim Honours

College, intensive programmes and summer schools; internationalization at home.

The internationalization of research

Arrangements made with international partners regarding education and research projects will be

Windesheim-wide. Strategic partnerships with foreign educational institutes are to be increased so

that international research and entrepreneurship receive added impetus. International partnerships

are necessary in order to participate in the European Higher Education Space and thus to promote

an inward flow of knowledge.

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International view

Lecturers' international competences, English-language skills and intercultural skills are to be

reinforced. To that end, Windesheim has established a language centre. In addition, appointees to

lecturer and staff posts will have to satisfy higher requirements regarding their international

experience and ambitions. More lecturers and professors will be involved in international

programmes and lecturer mobility will be substantially boosted.

24

Interview

'Tasting, smelling, feeling, seeing the difference: that's what international experience is about'

Pieter van Essen, Business, Media and Law Internationalization Manager:

'It isn't laid on a plate. Students who want to do an international internship, researchers who want

to organize a congress together with colleagues abroad, lecturers who want to take part in

exchange programmes: none of them will get far if they don't display initiative and make active

preparations. A lot of them are used to having everything done for them, but it doesn't work like that

if you want to go abroad.'

'Part of my job is showing people what's possible. I also supervise and coach students and staff

who are planning a ‘business trip’ abroad. A lot of the people I deal with are quire unaware of the

choices that they need to make, which suggests to me that internationalization needs to be given a

higher profile within Windesheim. There is plenty going on in that line, but much of it goes

unnoticed. Nevertheless, I think we can be proud of the opportunities on offer: here in the

Netherlands, you can do English-language minors, and if you look further afield there are any

number of internships, competitions, minors and graduation projects, in the form of exchange

programmes and in other forms. But we need to do more to make people aware of what's on offer.'

'Do students need international experience? If you look at it from a purely commercial perspective,

you see that international experience is a real plus when you enter the labour market. But there's

also a personal dimension to it. Students make big strides in personal development when they do

an international project. What usually happens is that when they return from an internship abroad,

they decide to find themselves their own accommodation. They come back more independent than

they went away.'

'The phrase 'global village' is often bandied about quite lightly. The belief that we are all becoming

more and more alike and that nowadays it's easy for different nationalities to get along is too

simplistic. In reality, things go wrong all the time in the international business world. Sometimes

that's down to pure ignorance, to not knowing enough about other cultures. And sometimes it's

down to an inability to adapt. Or to not appreciating how important it is to be able to speak the

language of your host country. I think it's great that different countries have their own

characteristics. But the differences between nations mean that there's a whole lot more to gaining

international experience than having a Hungarian friend on Facebook or Skyping with a colleague

in India. Tasting, smelling, feeling, seeing the difference: that's what international experience is

about. And to do that you really have to get out there.'

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Colophon

The Windesheim Institutional plan 2013-2017 is published by Windesheim, knowledge centre for

higher education and research.

Photography and design: Marketing and Communication

Text: Geert Dekker

No rights may be derived from the contents of this Institutional plan.