5 FGGA lecturers awarded Senior Teaching Qualification

16 December 2019

With the end of the year coming to a close, it is time for a celebration. Twenty driven lecturers, among them 5 academic staff members of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in The Hague, were awarded their Senior Teaching Qualification by Vice- Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl.

In November last year the Executive Board of Leiden University decided to qualify 5 FGGA teachers for the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). They spent the last year working on their portfolio to obtain the SKO certificate. Among the five FGGA lecturers where four academic staff members of Leiden University College The Hague and one of the Institute of Public Administration.

Passionate Lecturers

Koen Caminada, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs is enthusiastic on the results:

''I am proud of the accomplishment of our passionate teachers. The Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs now has six lecturers who have received their Senior Teaching Qualification. A great achievement.''

Berta Fernandez Alvarez, Senior Policy Officer and Education Quality at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs is equally pleased:

''As the faculty SKO coordinator I really like that we have five new passionate lecturers who obtained the certificate. I am happy to see that out administrative support is bearing fruit; a great achievement of our faculty.''

The Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs now has 6 lecturers who received the SKO. The FGGA lecturers that received their Senior Teaching Qualification from vice- rector magnificus Hester Bijl last week at the Faculty Club:

Dr. David Ehrhardt, Assistant Professor in International Development at Leiden University College The Hague
Dr. Paul Hudson, Associate Professor of Physical Geography at Leiden University College The Hague
Dr. Daniela Vicherat Mattar, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Leiden University College The Hague
Dr. Brandon Zicha, Assistant Professor of Policy Science at Leiden University College The Hague
Dr. Natascha van der Zwan, Assistant Professor in Public Administration at the Institute of Public Administration

Interviews

A series of interviews with the lecturers who have recently been awarded their SKO certificate will follow in January and February. What does this qualification mean to them? And what makes them so passionate about teaching?

From Left to Right: Natascha van der Zwan, Brandon Zicha, Daniela Vicherat Mattar, David Ehrhardt and Paul Hudson
David Erhhardt receives the Senior Teaching Qualification from Hester Bijl
Brandon Zicha posing with his freshly obtained SKO - Certificate with Hester Bijl

The Senior Teaching Qualification (Dutch: SKO 'Senior Kwalificatie Onderwijs') is a qualification for lecturers who have at least 5 years experience in teaching at a university and who play a leading role in the development and innovation of teaching at a curriculum level, beyond the limits of their own discipline and thus transcending their own field.