Practice-oriented research universities: 'Don't think in terms of competition'
Universities are increasingly conducting practice-oriented research. Is that a threat to universities of applied sciences, which have much less money available for research?
Picture: Rosa Snijders
There is certainly a field of tension between the university of applied sciences and the university, agrees Floris Boogaard, lecturer in Spatial Transformations (water) at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen. “I'm on a lecturer's platform where it is sometimes said that universities don't take HBO seriously, or that they don't want to work together. However, I think you have to look for it in yourself.” Boogaard sees universities as a collaboration partner. In fact, his own research group and various projects on climate adaptation include people from higher vocational education and university - and they work well together.
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Kracht
The strength of HBO research, he says, is the practical approach and the network with private and public parties. “There is often the impression that universities are working on theoretical models and higher professional education researchers are collecting data outside of the physical environment. That does not do justice to either party, but I think it is fine if we conduct both practical and fundamental research together into problems that really matter.”
For example, Boogaard's research group works in the Grensmaas, the river basin of the Meuse on the border with Belgium. The Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen conducts research here with five universities. “Out in the field, people gain an understanding of each other's fields of expertise rather than behind their desks. Everyone has their own expertise; we coordinate the practice-oriented research in which everyone with boots on in the Meuse talks about fundamental research. Together we achieve results.”
HBO and university may seem like two worlds, says Boogaard, but every HBO lecturer has a PhD at a university. “It would be crazy if you no longer work with a university after your PhD as a lecturer and only do practice-oriented research without a university.” He applauds the fact that universities are also starting to look more closely at practice in their research. “I think it's important that you substantiate the theory with practice. That also makes it easier for me to work with universities. I don't think they are entering the domain of higher education with that. Where is it written what the domain of higher professional education or university is?”
Compete
Thijs Simons is program manager at Regieorgan Sia, which funds practice-oriented research. He distinguishes between practice-oriented, application-oriented and fundamental research. “A university of applied sciences conducts applied research. For example, he or she stands next to an entrepreneur, studies his problem, brings together the available knowledge and arrives at a solution in collaboration. A university conducts fundamental scientific research and possibly application-oriented research. In the latter form, she looks at what she can do in practice with the conclusions from scientific research.”
Simons sees a 'knowledge landscape' in which these three forms of research each have their own value. “They coexist in peaceful coexistence. On the basis of knowledge questions you go from practice-oriented to fundamental and then to the other side. There is also increasing collaboration. It is also better to work together than compete with each other. The Sia Directorate also encourages this as much as possible. Other subsidy providers, such as the National Science Agenda, are also looking for knowledge coalitions, from fundamental to practice-oriented research.” MBO is also a possible partner in this regard. “These students also do small research, shortly on the market, so that they also receive research training. MBO has created practorates, the MBO version of lectorates. They are also part of the knowledge landscape.”
Practorates, the senior secondary vocational education version of lectorates, are also part of the knowledge landscape
The government 'steers with money' to stimulate collaboration between university, university of applied sciences and regional education center in the field of research. Simons: “The government does this by attaching rules to subsidies. In this way, it can prevent competition and aim for added value through collaboration.”
open science
Frank Miedema, immunologist, infectious disease specialist and former dean and board member of UMC Utrecht, wrote the book Open science, the very idea† In open science, researchers conduct research together with parties from outside academia. Those non-academic partners can influence the research agenda with questions and ideas and help collect research data. Research funded with public funds thus benefits society even more. Miedema also sees HBO and MBO as important partners. “You shouldn't think in terms of competition, but synergy. There are many examples in the medical world. As the UMCU, we often work together with the Hogeschool Utrecht and the ROC, for example in the field of nursing, physiotherapy, obstetrics and dietetics. You are trained differently, but if you work together, as happens in day-to-day care, it has a lot of value.”
It should not be competition, but synergy
Of course money plays a role. Universities of applied sciences have much less money available for research. Simons: “But universities also have a much larger research component. Universities have been conducting research since the Middle Ages, and the universities of applied sciences have only been conducting research since 1986. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) rejects many more studies than the Sia Regie Organ, which focuses on higher vocational education. Your chance of making money should be about two thirds. This is currently still the case in higher professional education, but the scarcity is increasing because the quality of the research proposals is increasing significantly. You learn how it works.” However, more money is coming: the new coalition agreement stipulates that 5 billion euros will be made available over the next ten years. Simons: "That is partly in the budget for the coming term of office and it is intended for fundamental to practice-oriented research."
The universities have been conducting research since the Middle Ages, the universities of applied sciences only since 1986
Publications
Miedema hopes that universities of applied sciences will stick to their excellent practice-oriented research. “There was a time when colleges thought they should become a kind of university as well. They were going to do the research of UMCs, make publications and also wanted to get PhDs.” Deadly sin, he thinks. “UMCs have just realized that they were far removed from practice.” To explain his point, he shares an anecdote from the early XNUMXs when he was conducting AIDS research. “I once spoke enthusiastically about immunological research that I was doing in the Rode Hoed debate center. A boy walked up to the microphone afterwards and said, 'I don't get it, but I do have a real problem. My boyfriend and I are HIV positive, should we use condoms when we have sex?' An important question for him, but it hadn't occurred to us in the lab.”
Please don't let colleges enter the field we just left
When Miedema came to the UMC in 2004, he says, there was almost no relationship with the region, city and municipality. “You simply had to ensure international top publications. Scientists publish a lot, but hardly anyone reads it. What have all these publications yielded? Please don't let colleges enter the field we just left. Then they lose contact with the practice. I watch with great admiration how they respond to society. We in the universities and UMCs are now thinking much more carefully about how we can link science to people's problems: poverty, health and lifestyle, access to education, you name it. Let's do that together, each based on our own competencies and social networks.”
This article appeared in the March issue of the Education Magazine. Join the AOb and receive the magazine in your mailbox every month.
