Nijmegen School of Management

In 2017, it was clarified that resources that became available as a result of the abolition of the basic grant had to be spent by universities on improving the quality of education. At the time, the legislator stipulated that participational bodies must be closely involved in the expenditure of the study financing resources. As such, quality agreements regarding the use of these resources were drawn up in collaboration with the participational bodies. This section reflects on the establishment of the Nijmegen School of Management’s quality agreements and the use of these resources in the years 2019 to 2021. It also outlines the anticipated use of these resources for the years 2022 to 2026.

Shortly before drawing up the quality agreements, the Nijmegen School of Management drew up a new Strategic Plan for 2018-2021. The principles formulated by the faculty in this plan can be summarised as follows:

At the time, it was agreed with the participational bodies that the quality agreements had to be closely aligned with the Strategic Plan for 2018-2021. As a result, three of the themes defined within the context of the quality agreements have been given priority, namely:

In conjunction with the emphasis on stimulating and intensive education, additional attention should also be paid to student guidance in terms of the study programme (theme 2).

Against this backdrop, the faculty mainly focused on the following four themes from the national framework for quality agreements:

The budget for the original quality agreements plans is as follows:

Figure 1: Original budget taken from the original plans, 2019-2024

The realisation for 2019-2021 and the current budget (as submitted) for 2022-2024 are as follows:

Figure 2: Realised in 2019-2021 and the budget for 2022-2024

In this report, the realised measures for improving the quality of education are compared to the original plans for each theme. The original budget for these plans for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 amounts to €4,057k. These plans were therefore incomplete because the allocated amount for those years was €4,587k. These plans are supplemented in the budget. The realised plans in 2019, 2020 and 2021 amount to a total of €5,015k, which means that the faculty used its own resources for this purpose to the tune of €428k.

The differences between the realisation and the original plans and budgets are discussed below for each theme.

Before discussing the various themes addressed by the Nijmegen School of Management, the process of budgeting and accounting for the past few years will be outlined, including the change that has taken place for the quality agreements. The University Policy Letter dated 17 June 2020 sets out the amount of study financing resources allocated to all faculties for the years 2019 to 2024. For the Nijmegen School of Management, this allocation was incorporated in the 2020 faculty Budget Letter, which presents the financial implications of the agreements made within the faculty on this matter. A significant share of the funding was earmarked for ‘maintaining the amount per educational unit’. This means that the resources were included in the allocation model for the various study programmes.

When the 2019 financial statements were being drawn up, it emerged that the measure agreed with the participational bodies of ‘maintaining the amount per educational unit’ did not sufficiently address the need to account separately for the use of the study financing resources. For the 2021 budget, therefore, a decision was made to distribute this amount from the study financing resources separately among the academic departments and General Affairs. This resulted in the following distribution of the study financing resources for the coming years:

The budgeted amounts for vacancies or expenses for improving the quality of education are specifically listed in the budgets for the academic and support departments.

The following subsections discuss the accounting of the use of the study financing resources in comparison with the original plans for each theme.

A key theme within the national framework for quality agreements is investment in intensive and smaller-scale education, characterised by individual support, personal feedback and an explicit connection with social issues. In order to change the format of those parts of the curriculum in which necessary basic knowledge and skills are taught (e.g., less face-to-face instruction), innovation in education is required. The focus here is not on the number of contact hours as such, but on the number of contact hours during which valuable education is provided by students engaging with the material themselves and being encouraged to participate in the academic community. This should be combined with other forms of more indirect contact, which can partly be supported by ICT (e.g., preparing for lectures by watching knowledge clips or acquiring basic knowledge through web lectures). In doing so, the faculty aims to increase elements of blended learning and, where possible, personalised learning pathways that also serve to stimulate students.

Original plan for theme 1

2019

2020

2021-2024

Figure 3: Theme 1 - Budget and realisation.

Realisation of theme 1

In the years 2019 to 2021, an amount of €3,735k was used for the quality agreements. This is more than was included in the original plans (€3,667k). Especially for the years 2021 to 2024, the original plans were incomplete, the budgets were adjusted, and the received study financing resources were supplemented with the faculty’s own resources in order to be able to realise all the quality improvements. The faculty and the participational bodies were and still are convinced that an improvement in quality will primarily be achieved by increasing staffing levels (21 FTEs of academic staff were recruited for this theme between 2019 and 2021). This will help to improve the student-staff ratio and ensure that group sizes remain small. For this reason, in 2020 and 2021 considerable efforts were made to appoint additional staff members. Specific examples of this include the appointment of two new staff members and two academic practitioners at the Economics department, the appointment of three additional assistant professors at the Public Administration department and one additional assistant professor at the Political Science department.

Additionally, in 2021, the study programmes were able to use the quality resources to significantly reduce the size of tutorials in accordance with the original plan. Some study programmes also opted to increase the preparation time for educational activities – such as tutorials and lectures – in the hour allocation model. This enables lecturers to develop more intensive modes of instruction, which can be offered on a small scale thanks to the reduction of tutorial group sizes. Furthermore, the deployment of more junior lecturers for correction work has created room for the development of new teaching and exam formats, enabling course coordinators to actually innovate. As a result of the increase in staff, some courses have switched from multiple-choice to open-ended exams.

Tasks that were previously carried out by external staff are now performed by permanent staff members, thanks to the quality resources. By increasing the number of staff, study programmes are able to distribute their activities more evenly and the number of external lecturers is kept to a minimum, which in turn benefits the stability and quality of education. Experience has shown that these measures make an effective contribution to improving the quality of education and also have a positive impact on staff workload.

Research into the well-being of RU students in 2017 revealed that students of the faculty, like other RU students, feel safe on campus but that many of them suffer from loneliness, study pressure and stress. Across the board, the faculty scored better than the other faculties in this respect, but at the same time, the faculty sees it as its responsibility to promote the well-being of students in and related to their studies as much as possible. The intensity of the programme and the community spirit are key instruments for improving student well-being. Providing guidance that closely relates to the content of the programme is also a practical way of simultaneously promoting the quality of education and student well-being. The faculty is seeking to consolidate the various sub-roles of this guidance within one position that is implemented per study programme (and in the case of large study programmes, possibly also linked to cohorts or specialisations). Sub-roles that could be included in the envisaged ‘comprehensive’ support position include programme coordination, information provision, study advice and career orientation.

Original plan for theme 2

2019

2020

2021-2024

Figure 4: Theme 2 - Budget and realisation.

Realisation of theme 2

In 2019, no measures were taken with regard to this theme in accordance with the budget. After the original quality agreements were adopted, it transpired that the faculty did not need to make any additional investments to gain a better insight into the availability of workspaces for group work.

From 2020 onwards, the faculty started to further intensify its support and guidance services for students. Since the increasing number of students was putting pressure on the accessibility and availability of student advisors, additional student advisors (1.2 FTEs) have been appointed since 2020. Steps have also been taken with regard to the integrated counselling role. Various groups of students with a special status or background (e.g., elite athletes) are now being supported by newly appointed student advisors. Unfortunately, it will take longer to properly develop and implement this plan than was anticipated when drawing up the quality agreements.

Student support and guidance is offered both outside the study programme (e.g., by student advisors) and within the study programme (by lecturers). Consequently, efforts have also been made to increase the number of hours allocated to lecturers for the provision of student support, for example, by granting lecturers more hours for mentoring as part of the Academic Skills course.

In the past period, extra attention has been paid to increasing the visibility of all the facilities that the faculty has to offer in the field of academic counselling and engaging and connecting students. To this end, student communication and community building activities have been intensified.

Finally, various study programmes have used the quality funds to expand the support and guidance available to students while writing their Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis. Many students struggle with the thesis phase of the study programme, which is why good and personal guidance is necessary. The quality resources have enabled the Business Administration study programme to offer extra methodological support to students in the thesis phase

Editorial note: although this thesis support was linked to theme 1 in the original plan, in this justification, this expenditure has been included in this theme because it specifically concerns improving the guidance and support available to students and not, for example, about further intensifying the thesis process .

Realisation of the objectives regarding theme 1 (intensive education that stimulates students) requires investments in ICT. ICT can help students be better prepared for tutorials and other stimulating educational activities (particularly via knowledge clips and web lectures). It can also facilitate individual study so students can delve deeper into subjects that are considered difficult (e.g. research methods), and it can create a connection between students’ realisation of learning objectives in different courses within one learning pathway. The faculty is also keen to explore new ways of using ICT to implement the desired didactic model. It therefore intends to continue investing in the development and use of ICT in education in the coming period.

ICT investments are first and foremost investments in staff, both academic and support. The faculty wants to give its academic staff more opportunities to use ICT creatively in order to improve the quality of education in accordance with the faculty’s didactic model. It therefore wants to explore new possibilities for using ICT, for example through proeftuin experiments or by making greater use of the faculty’s lab facilities. To this end, the support provided by the support staff must be elevated to an adequate level for realising the increased use of ICT in education.

Original plan for theme 5

2019

2020

2021-2024

Figure 5: Theme 5 - Budget and realisation.

Realisation of theme 5

The originally included plans to distribute quality resources via an innovation and development pool have not been and will not be implemented. Distributing resources through an internal competition does not fit with the current climate and would have a negative impact on the workload of both academic and support staff.

In 2019, the faculty started developing knowledge clips for teaching research methods. These knowledge clips are now being used in faculty courses that are part of all students’ study programmes. In addition, the Geography, Spatial Planning and Environment (GPM) study programme, for example, has decided to overhaul its Bachelor’s curriculum and to improve the teaching of research methods. The Business Administration and Economics study programmes have also used the quality funds to revise their Bachelor’s curricula; these processes are currently underway.

At the faculty level, investments have been made to expand support for using ICT in education since 2020. Many lecturers benefited directly from this expansion when, in 2020 and 2021, all courses had to be moved fully online. The transition towards more blended learning (i.e., a mix of both in-person and online teaching) has been set in motion .

Good teaching is impossible without good lecturers who are also given the opportunity to develop their didactic skills as they themselves see fit. The faculty endeavours to employ an adequate percentage of scholarly academics in all its study programmes (lecturers with a PhD with a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) or an Extended Teaching Qualification (ETQ) and with research time, who incorporate their research experience in their lectures). The faculty wants to develop a more personalised professionalisation policy, in which the bureaucratic elements of a UTQ or ETQ programme are kept to a minimum, and lecturers themselves determine their learning objectives and are able to choose suitable training courses and programmes to achieve these objectives.

The faculty intends to create extra opportunities for lecturers who at the start of their career want to acquire and improve their didactic skills and learn about innovative teaching models in order to be able to provide high-quality, intensive, interactive and stimulating teaching. As this category of academic staff in particular experiences a high workload, extra attention and time (and therefore money) is crucial for their development and professionalisation as lecturers.

The faculty also wants to invest in development opportunities and training courses for lecturers who have obtained their UTQ/ETQ certificate. In particular, this concerns the provision of opportunities for lecturers to design and implement innovations to support the didactic model (such as the use of ICT). The faculty is in favour of the intended establishment of the Radboud Centre For Academic Teaching and Learning, which will provide support and guidance for interfaculty cooperation in this area.

Original plan for theme 6

2019

2020

2021-2024

Ensure that lecturers have adequate opportunities to shape their professional development according to the phase of their career

Figure 6: Theme 6 - Budget and realisation.

Realisation of theme 6

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, the priorities in education were geared towards ensuring that education and exams could take place under these extraordinary circumstances. Plans to scrutinise the UTQ/ETQ policy have therefore been put on the backburner. In 2022 and 2023, the faculty’s HR policy will be reviewed, partly in the light of the Recognition and Rewards programme, and, as part of this process, the policy and procedures relating to the UTQ and ETQ will be addressed. Although there has been some delay as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, work on this issue will be resumed in accordance with the original plans. One element of this review process is to develop new training modules. Revising the UTQ/ETQ policy, which is perceived as too bureaucratic, continues to be an important objective.

The continued professional development of lecturers has progressed in other areas, as can be seen from the expenditures under this heading in 2020 and 2021. The Business Administration study programme, for example, used the quality resources to set up a ‘support team for online education’, where lecturers can share best practices and provide peer feedback on online education formats that have been developed. Finally, the quality resources have enabled the study programmes to enlist additional student assistants for online teaching, thereby allowing course coordinators to spend more time on continuous professional development and peer feedback.

The process regarding the quality agreements is fully integrated in the planning and control cycle. Discussions between Finance and the departments concerning the budget, annual figures and reports also address the issue of study financing resources. The Quality Agreements committee, in which the faculty’s Executive Board, the Faculty Representative Council and the Faculty Student Council are represented, is informed about the accountability at the end of the year, the regulations regarding accountability and the budget. At each meeting, the committee members are invited to contribute ideas on how the resources should be spent, in order to ensure that the quality is raised in the right way for the students but also for the lecturers. In the participational bodies’ reflection, a number of specific examples are mentioned. During the past two years in particular, the committee has ensured that the policy with regard to the quality agreements has primarily been geared towards ‘getting more hands on deck’ and providing better student guidance; these points were put forward by the committee members and were subsequently implemented. The committee meets regularly, about six to eight times a year.