Impact-driven education, the Erasmian way 

The Erasmus University Rotterdam is strongly committed to create positive societal impact by its core activities of research and education. As part of the Quality Agreements with the Ministry of Education, EUR invests the coming years substantially in its portfolio of impact-driven education. All faculties have committed themselves to develop forms of education that help students to have a real impact on society, now and in the future. The project “Impact at the Core” supports this development and works closely together with the project ErasmusX, aimed at accelerating innovations in our education.

Both projects share the ambition to develop and support initiatives aimed at developing or strengthening impact-driven education, to design them in cocreation with faculty staff and societal partners, and to evaluate and refine them. It is the ambition to organize the transition towards more impact-driven education in an evidence-based way, in which we systematically reflect upon the question which forms of impact-driven education fit in different (disciplinary, educational) contexts and how effective they are in teaching students how to create impact. By sharing this knowledge, this research project can further fuel the transition towards an impact-driven university. A community of learning will be developed to foster processes of learning and knowledge exchange.

To develop a strong knowledge base, to organize the cycle of developing, testing, evaluating and refining forms of impact-driven education and to make the step from exploration towards mainstreaming we are looking for two postdoctoral researchers.

Exploring and Mainstreaming Impact-Driven Education

Initiating new practices of impact-driven education asks for organizing safe environments in which pilots and experiments can be conducted. It also asks for organizing processes of learning, reflection and improvement. But it also necessitates a strategy for upscaling and embedding this type of education in order to make it part of the core of our educational programs. The ambition to learn from impact-driven educational innovations and to translate the resulting knowledge into mainstream practices put specific demands on the design of pilots and experiments. This research project is meant to enhance our insight in how to organize educational innovation focused upon impact-driven education, and how to cross the difficult gap between the shelter of a range of experiments and the sustainable uptake in educational programs.  

We look for a researcher who is able to combine active involvement in designing impact-driven education with a keen eye to analyze in a systematic way how it works and how it can be improved. He or she is committed to contribute to the transition towards impact-driven education, and to substantiate this transition with sound research and practical applicable insights. The researcher we look for:

• Has a Ph.D. in a discipline related to innovation in education and teaching, management, innovation or organizational sciences;
• Is able to work in a complex project environment, has a strong hands-on mentality, and is able to collaborate with people on various levels in our organization and from different disciplines;
• Has excellent research skills, and is able to conduct scientific research in an action-oriented and co-creative way;
• Is able to design educational experiments with a keen eye on learning and upscaling;
• Is able to combine research activities with educational design activities and has the ambition to contribute to our mission to become an impact-driven university by developing best practices and help to mainstream them;
• Has a relevant network in this field and is able to mobilize it when necessary;
• Has excellent communication skills, in English. Dutch is considered a plus.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year employment.

We offer an employment contract for 1 year, with the possibility of a 2-year extension. Depending on your experience you will receive a competitive salary from a minimum of € 2.790,- to a maximum of € 5.127,-, for a full working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement Dutch Universities (scale 10-11).

In addition, we offer:

• 8% holiday allowance;
• a structural year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent training opportunities and secondary employment conditions;
• flexible working hours and holidays can possibly be determined in consultation so that an optimal balance between work and private life is possible;
• excellent pension plan through ABP;
• 232 vacation hours, the option to purchase extra and good supplementary leave schemes;
• a flexible working time: the possibility to work a maximum of 2 hours per week extra and thereby to build up extra leave;
• a choice model to put together part of your employment conditions yourself, such as a bicycle plan.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

The Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with an outspoken social orientation at the core of its education and research. EUR provides excellent education to students and is part of the international top in certain research areas. Erasmus University Rotterdam is not only an internationally oriented university, it is also well embedded in the city of Rotterdam and the region.

EUR, named after Rotterdam-born humanist and theologian Erasmus, is a research university with a strong international orientation and a pronounced social focus, both in its education and research activities. On the lively, modern campus, more than 28.000 students and scholars of more than 100 nationalities are constantly encouraged to develop their talents and meet their ambition. Our more than 2700 scientists and employees work together with all our students to solve challenges faced by global society, drawing their inspiration from the consistently dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. The academic education offered at our faculties is intensive, engaging and strongly focused on practical application. We increasingly perform our research in multidisciplinary teams, which are closely interwoven with international networks. In terms of research impact and the quality of its degree programmes, EUR can compete with the foremost universities in Europe, which is reflected in its consistent top-100 position in most major universities rankings. Erasmus University Rotterdam’s key values are daring, curiosity, social involvement, breaking new ground and striving for success.

Please see for more information www.eur.nl.