Compete for the Dutch Higher Education Award

Do you and your team work together to improve education? Or do you know a team that has delivered an exceptional performance? Compete for the Dutch Higher Education Award.

Every year, the Ministry of Education presents the Dutch Higher Education Award. The award is an appreciation for educational teams that deliver a special performance in higher education. Nominated teams have a chance of winning an amount of €1.2 million, €800,000 or €500,000 (total €2.5 million). Last spring, the Mixed Classroom team from Urban Futures Studio won the second prize of the Dutch Higher Education Award. They developed an innovative form of education in which students and professionals learn from and with each other.

For 2022, UU may again submit one nomination for a successful educational team that has made an outstanding or exceptional contribution to the renewal and/or improvement of higher education in the past four years. 

A teaching team can be nominated with the following profile:

  1. The Education Team consists of a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 people;
  2. The Education Team is employed by the same Dutch-funded higher education institution, such as Utrecht University or Utrecht University Medical Centre;
  3. The Education Team consists of members with various roles, such as lecturers, relevant education director, educational researchers, hybrid lecturers, PhD students, student assistants, etc;
  4. The members of the Education Team must be able to use the available resources as a team (as far as possible) for projects that contribute to the renewal and/or improvement of higher education;
  5. The special achievements of the Education Team that form the basis for the nomination have not previously been rewarded with this premium.

The Board of the Centre for Academic Teaching (CAT) will select a team, which will then be nominated by the Rector. For this purpose, the following procedure has been established:

  • by 12:00 noon on 15 June at the latest, teams wishing to be considered for the Higher Education Award can be sent to cat@uu.nl, described in no more than 1/2 A4. The description should in any case include the special performance and the members of the team;
  • by 1 July, the CAT Board will select two to four initiatives that are considered the most promising. These teams are requested to further develop their initiative in a maximum of 2 A4;
  • no later than 15 July, the CAT Board selects the most promising proposal and presents it to the Rector.
  • The selected team will be supported by the CAT in writing its definitive nomination, which must be submitted to the CvB by 1 November at the latest.

For questions or more information, please contact the Centre for Academic Teaching at cat@uu.nl.