| Compete for the UU Team Award for Education 2026 |
To stimulate and reward cooperation in the field of education at UU, the UU Team Award for Education has been awarded for several years to a team that has made an exceptional contribution to education at UU. Important in this is how the cooperation within the team has contributed to the achievement. Are you part of or do you know such a team? Nominations may be submitted until 18 December. |
Register now for the Teaching and Learning Inspiration Days from 26-29 January 2026 |
From Monday 26 to Thursday 29 January 2026, it's time for the Teaching and Learning Inspiration Days. During this event, you can immerse yourself in an inspiring programme aimed at enhancing your teaching practice. There will be sessions on Future Learning Spaces, intercultural competencies, generative AI, assessment, Virtual Reality, creative forms of conversation, and much more. View the full programme and register now! |
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Keep developing yourself as a teacher |
| Course: Supervising student research more effectively
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| Take advantage of the wide range of courses organised by the Centre for Academic Teaching and Learning, focused on teacher development. For example, attend workshops on the new Learning Management System Brightspace to master it even better, or learn how to communicate with your students about the use of generative AI in education. You can attend interesting sessions throughout the year, so be sure to check out the complete range and sign up. |
| Supervising theses can be fun and inspiring, but also difficult and time-consuming. In this training on 28 January, you will gain inspiration and practical tools to optimise your approach. We will dive into questions such as: what are more effective ways of organising supervision and giving feedback? And with which strategies can you support students so that they can better detect and solve (textual) problems themselves? Interested in reading more? See our blog post (in Dutch). |
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| Reminder: Share your wishes for the new digital assessment system |
| | Closing symposium: USO GenAI in Higher Education |
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| This autumn, the tender process for Utrecht University's digital assessment system will commence. Make your voice heard during the special sessions on the wishes and requirements for the tender for the assessment software. We are organising input sessions from the end of November until the Christmas period. Will you be signing up? |
| Join us on Monday 15 December 2025, 12:30–14:00 o’clock (Van Lier & Egginkzaal, Bestuursgebouw) for the closing symposium of the USO project on GenAI in Higher Education. We will present new Teaching and Learning Collection materials, work package leaders will share their projects and we’ll celebrate together! |
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| Brightspace now works even better thanks to new functionalities |
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Blackboard contract ends on 29 December 2025 – Secure your teaching materials in time
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| Brightspace has been implemented across UU. However, this does not mean that no further developments are planned for the system. We continue to develop it based on feedback and requests from lecturers. Chris Phielix and Oscar Buma are respectively faculty implementation coordinator for Brightspace and key user at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. They explain how Brightspace continues to develop. |
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| The contract with Blackboard ends on 29 December 2025 at 23:59. After that, content on Blackboard will no longer be directly accessible to lecturers and students. Do you still have content, such as documents, presentations and course manuals, on Blackboard that you would like to keep? Then please migrate your content or save it in a different location. |
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| 33 teachers put in the spotlight by their students |
| Good teachers deserve recognition. That is why Utrecht University has been awarding two special prizes since 1994: Teacher of the Year and Teacher Talent of the Year. This year, study associations nominated no fewer than 33 teachers, 17 for Teacher of the Year and 16 for Teacher Talent of the Year. |
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| Consultation hour Institutional Audit (ITK) |
As part of the Institutional Quality Assurance Assessment (ITK), Utrecht University's quality assurance system will be assessed by a panel from the NVAO. The panel will visit UU and speak with the board, staff and students. During the online open consultation hour on 6 January (16:00–17:00), staff and students will have the opportunity to speak with the panel in confidence. For more information, please visit intranet. |
The best approach for interdisciplinary student consultation
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Kick off the new year with our first Scholarly Snacking session
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| Rianne van Lambalgen investigated which tools are most effective in encouraging multidisciplinary student teams to discuss disciplinary similarities and differences. She tackled this issue with funding from a SoTL grant. What did she discover about what works well and what doesn't? |
| | Join us for the first Scholarly Snacking session on 8 January 2026 to kick-off the new year! This informal lunchtime gathering brings together higher education researchers, lecturers, and PhD candidates to exchange ideas and gain inspiration. Enjoy a light lunch while a researcher shares their current project, then join the conversation. Expect lively discussion, fresh perspectives, and a growing community of curious minds. We hope to see you there! |
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| Staff Symposium Student Wellbeing 19 January 2026: register now! |
| On Monday 19 January, you are welcome at the location Wonders of Work to attend the third edition of the Staff Symposium on Student Wellbeing, with the theme: Sense of Belonging: together at home at university(?). Bert Klein Gebbink will open the day, followed by keynotes from Gönül Dilaver and Amin Asad. After that, you can choose from sub-sessions on topics such as inclusive education, loneliness and connection. We will conclude with a panel discussion. The symposium will also focus on your own well-being and sense of belonging. |
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| Drinks reception to mark the end of the Continuing Education programme |
| Continuing Education is entering a new phase. The programme is being institutionalised. Faculties will continue to develop Continuing Education, supported by their own support teams and the Office OvP. We would like to invite you to a drinks reception on 9 December 15:00 - 17:00 o’clock to mark this moment. Wieger Bakker and Tessa Evers will speak about the services provided by the Office OvP from January 2026 onwards. |
From the Teaching and Learning Collection |
The assessment cycle is a structured and systematic process that supports the design, implementation, evaluation, and improvement of assessments within higher education. It promotes the idea that assessments are not just a tool for grading, but an integral part of learning and curriculum development. Curious to know exactly what the 8 steps of the cycle are? |
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Wil je meer nieuws lezen? |
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