The teacher still often follows compulsory didactic courses in their own time
Universities send their lecturers on didactic courses, but often do not make hours available for this. "As a manager you actually say: I don't think this is important enough."
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Anyone who teaches workgroups or lectures must have a teaching license. The universities agreed on this in 2008. Teachers would from now on follow a training that led to the basic teaching qualification (bko).
In the beginning shot the proportion of didactically trained teachers *How are things in higher professional education? In dog for universities of applied sciences there are clear agreements about compensation for compulsory training courses. Starting HBO lecturers can in any case obtain the 'basic qualification didactic competence'. Still, it takes a lot of effort for universities of applied sciences to attract new, highly educated teachers. “Everything is well arranged on paper”, says AObdriver Douwe van der Zweep. “The basic qualification is reimbursed 100 percent in time and money, but in practice it is quite difficult for young teachers. The workload is high and they often still have to learn how to teach. There is also a lot of outflow due to the use of uncertain contracts. Many starters are leaving the sector quite quickly. ” up, according to figures from the Association of Universities (VSNU), but in recent years the groei little by little, from 63 percent in 2018 to 64 percent in 2019. There is still much to be gained among teachers with a temporary appointment.
High working pressure
But such a training is not something they can do 'just like that' for many teachers. By way of illustration: at Erasmus University the total bko study load (including self-study) is estimated at 80 hours. At the VU University this is even 150 hours; almost double. And the workload in higher education is already skyrocketing.
Yet the time efforts of teachers for these courses are by no means always compensated, according to a tour of the universities. At the Open University, TU Delft and the universities of Twente, Leiden and Tilburg, lecturers do not receive an hourly allowance for the bko.
Maastricht University offers all lecturers with a BKO requirement 40 teaching hours to compensate for the meetings. After all, gaining practical experience largely overlaps with the performance of regular teaching tasks, according to the university.
The policy differs per faculty. Some teachers do get extra time, others don't
And at the University of Amsterdam, VU University Amsterdam and Utrecht University, the policy differs per faculty, or sometimes even per department. Some teachers get extra time and others don't. Even in one 'bko class', the compensation may differ per teacher. Starting next year, Utrecht University will 'align' its bko programs more, so that the differences in study load and compensation will become smaller.
Time of the boss
How do teachers make time for it? At the UvA, participants usually manage to “do it during working hours,” a spokesperson said. Lecturers at the Open University are allowed to do the same. At TU Delft, too, it is the intention that the bko takes place 'in the boss's time'.
The question is, however, what exactly 'working time' or 'the boss's time' means. After all, teaching is not always neatly limited to working days, between nine and five. Anyone who spends Thursday afternoons on the bko portfolio instead of grading, is still left with a pile of unread exams in the evening or at the weekend.
You can't just cram such a trajectory in, that's only possible if you remove other tasks or expand the contract
“In practice, it is now often placed with the teachers themselves,” says Marc van Mil, professor of biomedical sciences from Utrecht, who is also a board member of the Comenius Network of recognized educational innovators. "But you can't just add such a process, it only works if you remove other tasks or expand the contract."
Van Mil has therefore started a pilot within his own department at UMC Utrecht for PhD students who would like to obtain their bko, but do not have time for it within their appointment. Via the pilot they can now get a six-month contract extension for this.
Check off
“You may wonder whether someone without a BKO should be teaching,” says Van Mil. “Therefore, make sure that junior teachers are immediately in that training process, so that they are well prepared early in their career. With learning on the job is in principle nothing wrong, as long as you have a serious training plan from the start and are given the space to learn from and with each other. ”
Unfortunately, the bko is still too often seen as an obligation to be ticked off, instead of an opportunity to let someone's talents flourish
Anyone who does not offer time for the bko actually says as a manager: I do not think this is important enough, says Van Mil. "Unfortunately, the bko is still too often seen as an obligation to be ticked off, rather than an opportunity to let someone's talents blossom."
Generous
The call for hourly compensation is not entirely new. In 2016, the University Education Centers Working Group of the Higher Education Expertise Network (EHON) analyzed all bko programs at Dutch universities. In that investigation report was already recommended to compensate lecturers for their time investment – as this was not done 'at most universities'. A similar call followed in 2018, after the universities had joined forces 'bko peer review' had performed.
Some institutions and faculties have become more generous
“Some institutions and faculties have become more generous,” says EHON chairman Jaap Mulder. "Then you hope that others follow the good example and that they also reduce teaching time by so many hours."
Good education
In addition, universities and science funders want to 'recognize and value' in a different way, they announced last year. Not only research performance, but also good education, strong leadership, the impact of research and good patient care (for doctors) will soon be weighed more heavily in the assessment.
Mulder sees this as a step in the right direction. "If the teaching career is valued higher, teachers will hopefully also have more time and money to develop." This is already being worked on in some places. Tilburg University is looking into whether a bko compensation can be included in the recognition and evaluation project, a spokesperson reports.
Do not fill up
Is there no national compensation agreement? In the collective labor agreement for universities you won't find anything about it yet, says Jan Boersma of the FNV trade union. "The demand for compensation has never been submitted to us before."
He wonders whether you should arrange it at the level of allocated hours. “Above all, there must be sufficient space within the employment contract to complete a bko trajectory. This means that you cannot completely fill teachers with education, because then it has to be done in their spare time. ”
According to Boersma, it is therefore particularly problematic that many young teachers in higher education have a temporary appointment to get. “They don't stay in service long enough to get the BKO,” he says.
Perhaps it is still a subject for the next collective bargaining
Sector manager Donald Pechler of this agrees de Algemene Onderwijsbond. “A bko trajectory must fit within the scope of the appointment. With a temporary contract of one year, for example, that quickly becomes difficult. ” He also believes that an employer should facilitate the bko with time. Perhaps it is still a topic for the next collective bargaining, both union officials suggest. They will start again soon.
Also read: 'Unrest about temporary contracts at Leiden University'
