Non-Natural Born lecturers: How to survive teaching in Dutch higher education

Abstract

Teaching in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) requests training and skills as researching. Unfortunately, on an international level the teaching training programme is not always crystal and clear, or even worse, not requested. Often researchers are asked to provide lectures without receiving proper formation. This approach creates sensible depletion in the educational quality. Offering an overview on how the Dutch HEIs are tackling the problem, the aim of this study is twofold: (i) presenting the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) from a career development perspective and (ii) giving a qualitative evaluation of the entire process from the point of view of UTQ supervisors and lecturers. Finally concluding the relevance of such a professionalization programme.