Exactly what decentralisation will look like, and how lecturers will be empowered are two questions Bormans did not answer in his start-of-year-speech. The answers are even less clear to those very lecturers who are meant to be ‘seizing power’.

Close to the primary process

‘The idea that lecturers should have autonomy is excellent’, says Moira Haagsma, lecturer in the French Teacher Training programme. ‘We are very close to the primary process. If the distance between the decision-makers and the implementers is too wide, it doesn’t work very well.’ Haagsma explains that lecturers in her programme are continuously ‘making policy’, trying to ensure things are running smoothly. ‘Unnecessary rules? Yes, of course everyone wants to get rid of those, but it’s not easy to just cut down on everything. For instance, at the moment we are waiting for our ten-week model. I think it is right that that model is drawn up by management. But the problem is that it hasn’t arrived, or at any rate it can’t be found. Communication should be improved.’

In the experience of Onur Paydas, lecturer in the Social Work programme, his programme has already taken big steps with regard to empowering lecturers, as a result of the recent transformation of the various social courses into Social Work. Paydas: ‘This process has taken two years and the developing teams also consisted of lecturers. Everything is much more streamlined. The team of lecturers for the first year are all in this corridor and my group is being taught in the same classroom every single time.

‘My expertise is not being utilised’

This kind of straightforward decentralised organisation is attractive to IBK as well, as part-time lecturers Peter van der Schaaf and Esther Suurmeijer explain. But there is a lot of work to do. ‘Management decides and with all due respect, my expertise is not being utilised, even though I was required to hold a Master Degree when I was recruited’, says Suurmeijer. She also has this to say about the accreditation process: ‘As soon as accreditation is mentioned, you are dealing with panicky managers. But I am extremely careful and give a great deal of thought to each student and whether they really have achieved the right level to graduate. As far as I am concerned, the accreditation committee is welcome to make unannounced visits to any graduation session – that would be much better than all this window dressing.

It is ‘an excellent idea’ to put lecturers at the centre of things, Van der Schaaf adds. ‘But in reality, higher management still takes many of the decisions. What is needed is a massive cultural shift, and I can’t see it happening yet. The professionals here do not get the impression that they are important.’

‘I don’t see much interference’

It’s a different story on the Nursing programme, according to lecturer Erica Witkamp, who feels that the way of working proposed by Bormans is already put into practice there. Witkamp: ‘We already work very independently as lecturers, for instance on designing the course and how we solve particular problems. I don’t see much interference by the Executive Board’. On the other hand, she has noticed interference by other management levels, course managers and RBS deans. ‘But I feel it is important that they set our framework, support the work of lecturers and keep an eye on the general direction – we must be able to be called to account if we are in danger of going off course.’ In such circumstances, it is important, according to Witkamp, that lecturers and management have open lines of communication and that management does not take decisions over the heads of lecturers. Witkamp: ‘I can see room for improvement there.’

Jos van Nierop