The M Health Sciences focuses on analytic thinking and skills. Students are trained in academic and to a lesser extent other professional skills. This means that in many courses students write, present, peer review, debate, etc. However, at the moment there is no integral and comprehensive plan and structure for including these skills throughout the program. The successful candidate will develop such a plan in collaboration with the Skills expert of the Department Health Sciences and the program management. In addition he/she will implement this plan in the program. This means that he or she will discuss implementation of activities with course examiners/coordinators and contribute to teaching professional skills to the students.

Additionally, we are planning to develop and implement a program that supports students who come outside the VU and provides opportunities for students from within and outside the VU to get to know each other, with special attention to welcoming students who are new to Amsterdam or even to the Netherlands. The successful candidate will develop this program and host the activities in this program.

Finally the candidate will play an active role in the evaluation of the above- mentioned innovations to the M Health Sciences and in improving our communications. In particular, we will be seeking input on changes needed to improve communications on our website, revising the internship manual, and identifying new approaches to reaching students to improve the flow of communication.

• A MSc degree within the Health or Life Sciences or other relevant discipline;
• expertise and experience in teaching, preferably at university level; 
• strong social and communicative skills and a pro-active professional attitude;
• excellent English oral and writing skills;
• good organizational skills and the ability to work in teams as well as independently.

You are somebody who can easily relate to both the student and teacher perspectives and has a drive to further improve or optimize our program for all stakeholders. In short you are:
• engaged
• self-conscious
• a team worker
• flexible

The appointment will be for 10 months. The desired starting date is the 1st of March 2018. You can find information about our excellent fringe benefits of employment at www.workingatvu.nl like:
• remuneration of 8,3% end-of-year bonus and 8% holiday allowance
• solid pension scheme (ABP);
• a minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment;
• possibilities to save up holidays for sabbatical leave. 

The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel, and depending on experience and qualifications, range from a minimum of € 2.588 up to a maximum of
€ 3.605 gross per month (salary scale 10.0 10-8), based on fulltime employment.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) is a leading, innovative and growing university that is at the heart of society and actively contributes to new developments in teaching and research. Our university has ten faculties, and provides work for over 4,500 staff and scientific education for more than 23,000 students.

http://www.vu.nl/en/index.asp

Research at the Faculty of Sciences focuses on the areas of Life & Health, Networked World, Fundamentals of Science, and Energy & Sustainability. The faculty’s teaching activities are directly linked to this excellent research. Cooperation with other faculties on the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam campus generates attractive, high-quality Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes.  At international level, the faculty cooperates closely with leading scientific institutes and other partners.

General
The M Health Sciences program is a one year Master aimed at mastering knowledge and skills contributing to a multi- or interdisciplinary approach to health problems, health promotion, and healthcare. The program offers a variety of specializations, each of which contain a coherent program in a specialized field within Public Health. The program attracts some 150 students a year. Students come from our Bachelor’s program in Health Sciences, our pre-master Health Sciences, or from other programs from within and outside the VU. The program is taught by staff from a variety of departments within the VU and VUmc.