HE institutions are not sealed off from the outside world. That is the message contained in the start-of-year speeches for the new academic year in Higher Professional Education. The institutions are facing an immense task, according to executive board members.

‘We increasingly judge each other in our society on the basis of cultural background, race, religion, political leanings or nationality’, according to President of the Executive Board Wim Boomkamp of Saxion University of Applied Sciences (Saxion Hogescholen). In his opinion, HE should resist this trend.

Inculcating values

Higher Professional Education should not just prepare students for the employment market, but also teach the values of freedom and tolerance, according to President of the Executive Board Paul Rüpp of Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans Hogeschool). ‘What this means is that we should acknowledge and understand, for example, the background to the actions and ways of thinking of supporters of Erdogan as well as Gülen’, he said in his start-of-year speech. If it should come up in the classroom, teachers have an obligation to help their students discuss these issues, ‘as long as it is done with the firm conviction that these discussions can and should take place in freedom and safety.’

Problems in the wider world have been highlighted by others too. In an essay which appeared just before the start of the academic year, President Ron Bormans of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Rotterdam) writes: ‘I would put it like this: if there’s trouble in Turkey, we feel it rippling out into our classrooms.’ Everything society is struggling with (‘such as racism, physical violence, threats and inappropriate text sprayed on walls’) is reflected in Higher Professional Education.

Confrontational

Education should lessen tensions and help underprivileged sections of the population, but that is easier said than done. Lecturers are facing ‘a challenge of unprecedented difficulty’, according to Dean Huib de Jong of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam). He is the first to admit that he has never had to face this challenge himself, as he did most of his teaching at university level. Teaching in Higher Professional Education was ‘confrontational’, in his opinion.

The trick, according to the executive board presidents, is to transform diversity into a strength. ‘Learning to deal with many different perspectives and all of the different levels that are involved when studying, learning, going on work placements and finally working – that’s our daily job’, says President of the Executive Board of Inholland Jet de Ranitz. Higher Professional Education is under pressure, just like the rest of society, ‘but our students and lecturers demonstrate on a daily basis how we can live together successfully – that it is possible.’

HOP, Bas Belleman