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This day will be interactive and engaging, with plenty of opportunities for networking and collaboration with like-minded individuals. We believe that your presence will add immense value to the day and help us achieve our goals.
Programme of the day
TIME ACTIVITY
09:00 Meet & connect
09:30 Opening by Harold van Rijen
ROOM
Koninginne room
Beelaerts van Blokland room
Warm welcome in which we look back on last 3 years and get an overview of what you can expect on this day.
09:40 College tour with Henk Kummeling
Beelaerts van Blokland room
Join Henk Kummeling, Maarten Huisman, Celia Berkers and Bas van Breukelen on a college tour presented by Sanne ter Meulen - de Jong and Kees van de Sanden. In this college tour we contemplate, discuss, and reflect upon the strategy for the upcoming three years. The interactive plenary session with a panel will be the perfect platform to share statements, raise questions, and engage in insightful discussions. Get ready to delve deeper into the strategy and gain valuable insights from the host and other participants.
11:00 Discovery walk with your colleagues through
the city centre and the history of the GSLS
12:00 Lunch
City centre
Ball room
13:00 Workshops round 1
Workshop GSLS
Workshop Masters domain
Workshop PhD domain
Bouillon room
Beelaerts van Blokland room
's Jacob room
Workshop Continuing education
14:30 Break
15:00 Workshop round 2
Workshop GSLS
Dom Kabinet room
Koninginne room
Bouillon room
Workshop Masters domain
Beelaerts van Blokland room
Workshop PhD domain
Workshop Continuing education
16:30 Closing session / borrel
's Jacob room
Dom Kabinet room
Ball room
The final session will be a plenary session, combining both formal and informal elements with drinks. The day will culminate in an official closing by Isabel Arends that will recap the achievements of the past three years and summarize the results of the morning and afternoon sessions. To commemorate the event, there will be a photobooth to make memories together and a toast.
Get to know all the people who are the host, being a panel member during the college tour, or are moderating a workshop on this page.
Workshops
As the Graduate School of Life Sciences, we aim to devise a refreshed strategy to sharpen our goals. Additionally, we attain our targets and desires in all areas of our organisation for the upcoming three years. Therefore, we are appealing to our GSLS community to participate in these next steps.
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There are two workshop rounds during the GSLS Strategy Day which covers all the different domains of the School. We will give you advance information on the context of the workshop so that you can bring possibly relevant aspects to the strategy day.
Workshop 1
Should we stay or should we grow?
The increasing enrollment of life science bachelor students may pose a potential challenge in the coming years. Each year, we receive a significantly higher number of applications than available seats, resulting in the unfortunate rejection of eligible students, including those applying from our UU bachelor programmes. Moreover, according to the coalition agreement, students should have the opportunity to pursue a master's degree at their undergraduate university. Hence, the question arises: should we maintain our current capacity, or should we expand? If we choose to grow, should we revise our curriculum and develop new Master's programmes? We eagerly anticipate an engaging discussion on this matter and are curious to know what you think about it.
Workshop 2
The master curriculum: continuing evolution or time for revolution?
The GSLS celebrates its 20th anniversary in two years, and some master's programmes are even older than that. Over these years, the framework of our master curriculum has primarily remained the same, with research at its core. Of course, we also implemented several significant innovations, like Life Sciences Academy, for more focus on academic and transferable skills and several new profiles to prepare our graduates for a diverse job market. Although we are happy with our current offer, some bottlenecks still need to be solved, like the fact that students find it hard to finish within two years. By joining the workshop, you can let us know what your thoughts are on the goals and framework of our master curriculum. What should we keep? What should we change and how fast? This workshop will be the kickoff to set the GSLS strategic goals for our master education for the upcoming years.
Workshop 3
GSLS Continuing Education: The start of embedding Continuing education within the GSLS
Workshop 4
From preaching to practice
The last couple of years, the need for educating professionals has become more clear. Utrecht University has to address this need. As a professional you never stop learning. To us, the GLSL, the task to keep the knowledge and skills of professionals up-to-date and to give access to new knowledge. But how are we going to provide this knowledge within the GSLS? Who is this professional and how does this student differ from our initial students? How can we open up our classrooms for this group of students? And what will (not) change for us? What opportunities may arise? We are looking forward to discuss this type of education more deeply and to hear your thoughts on the newest pilar of education within the GSLS.
Last year, we released the first PhD & Supervisor Guide, containing all the essential information about the organisational structure of doctoral education at the Graduate School of Life Sciences. In creating this guide, we incorporated input from many of you to establish new PhD guidelines. Your feedback has confirmed that the guide has proven helpful. However, we must ask ourselves if the guide is enough to improve doctoral education or if more actions need to be taken. Are the guidelines being effectively implemented universally? Or should we go further? We invite you to join us in a dialogue to determine the essential priorities for the PhD domain in the coming years. Together, we can shape the future of doctoral education.
Together we shape our future
We cordially invite you to the GSLS Strategy on July 6th in Paushuize. This triennial event is the time for the entire school to collectively celebrate the achievements of the last three years and to explore, discuss and set strategics goals for the upcoming three years. Since you're a part of our community we cannot define our new strategy without you. So, sign up via the button below to claim your spot.