In response to challenges emerging in society, universities are searching for ways to innovate their courses through novel institutional educational policies and practices. Those efforts, however, are often not informed by knowledge about course innovation characteristics university-wide, and are often not supported by processes of reflection…

Increasingly, internationalisation at home and internationalisation of the curriculum are adopted by universities across the globe but their systemic implementation is a complex process. For instance, academics and academic disciplines understand and approach internationalisation differently, as previous studies have shown. However, there is…

A collaboration of 26 Dutch universities of applied sciences is working on the development and implementation of the first generation of professional doctoral programs. The distinctiveness of a professional doctoral program has been defined for seven professional domains, including health and well-being as an example. It is described as being an…

This paper presents a multi-faceted analytical Course Innovation Framework (CIF) that can help institutes of higher education analyze multiple aspects of course innovation. The CIF was constructed by integrating insights from literature, policy documentation and course-innovation practices at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.…

Educating students in higher education who are capable of addressing societal challenges requires innovative learning journeys. In the current study, we explore challenge-based learning (CBL) as one way to realise such education. A Delphi study has been conducted at a Dutch University for Life Sciences to identify key characteristics, learning…

Due to fast and unpredictable developments, professional education is challenged with being responsive, which demands a rethinking of conventional curriculum development approaches. Yet, literature on curriculum development falls short in terms of recognising how to react rapidly and adequately to these new developments. This study focuses on…

As decolonization?of the curriculum in higher education (HE) gains traction, academics?may question?their positionality and role as actors in the field. The concept of decolonization is contentious, but primarily focuses on uncentering the?Western?filter through which the world is viewed both socially and academically. Just as Gavin Sanderson has…

Worldwide, educational policies increasingly focus on students' intercultural competency development (ICD). But educational institutions struggle with its implementation due to difficulties concerning 1) explicating educational goals for ICD and 2) developing teaching, learning and assessment activities that foster this development. The paper…

Developing students' innovation competence is becoming increasingly important in higher education, yet few studies have actually investigated whether current learning environments are aimed at promoting this competence and whether students perceive that they have mastered this competence. This study aimed to map students' perceptions of the…

This article discusses liberal arts college students' perceptions of environmental and ecological justice. Complementing emerging studies of education that tackles human-environment relationships, this article discusses student assignments related to the debates in social/environmental and ecological justice written as part of the course…

Health professions education scholarship units (HPESUs) are increasingly becoming a standard for medical schools worldwide without having much information about their value and role in actual educational practices, particularly of those who work in these units, the educational scientists. We conducted a linguistic analysis, called Membership…

In this study, the consequences of allowing course compensation in a higher education academic dismissal policy are evaluated by examining performance on a second-year follow-up (i.e. sequel) course that builds on material from a first-year precursor course. Up to now, differences in the consequences of compensation on student performance across…

This study compared Dutch alumni who previously participated in an honors program (n = 72) to non-honors alumni who entered university as high-achieving high school students (n = 72) with regard to (1) final university grade point average (GPA) and (2) early career outcomes. Final grades were drawn from university files. Using an online…

On signing the Bologna declaration in 1999, European countries committed themselves to addressing the reforms necessary for adapting their university education to the European Higher Education Area. This modification process culminated in 2010, and this research aims to analyse the degree of divergence that currently exists in each course subject…

At a time when more students than ever are attending higher education, its provision is becoming more fluid, global and competitive. For example, developments in new technologies mean that higher education institutions (HEIs) can make their courses available all over the world. These developments bring into question the traditional delivery model…