A dilemma. It is. With cuts hanging like a shadow over higher education, and #Eppocalypse launching more trial balloons about the future of higher education than Carl in the Pixar film UP, we are heading into uncertain times. At the same time, developments in the world are not standing still either. The meteoric rise of (Gen)AI and of all kinds of other (learning) technologies, of increasing diversity and pluriformity in society, decreasing student intake, and changing student wishes, we also have to take this into account in our education. It has actually become a paradox; tightening our belts on the one hand, while we actually need new trousers. Cutting back and innovating, we actually have to do both.
So how can we all deal with this paradoxical situation? Fortunately, there is a lot of research on this. Step 1: Accept that it is a paradox. Don't bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, but recognise that things are getting worse financially AND that we need to renew our education. Step 2 is to reformulate the question about the paradox. For example: How can we provide education that offers value to students and society with fewer resources? There are surely better questions to think of, but it's all about the thought exercise. And from that question, we can look for so-called both/and solutions where you consider both sides of the paradox. You can think of organising and offering higher education completely differently (something we should certainly do), but more often you have to think of tightrope walking. Tightrope walkers focus on one point in the distance, and with small adjustments to their bodies they maintain their balance to eventually reach the other side. So they are constantly balancing.
I would like to introduce two terms that I think can already help in this tightrope walk: Innolaveren and Innoleren. Innolaveren is the balanced innovation and renewal in education, setting the educational vision and future vision of our university, faculties, and programmes as the dot on the horizon. Where do we want to be in five years' time? With targeted innovations, we can chart a path to get there, within the bandwidths of the new financial situation. Innoleren plays a crucial role here. So many great things are already happening on our campus in terms of educational innovation. From small to big innovations, by lecturers, education coordinators and education professionals, everywhere we see ideas maturing every time that have real value for students and society. And we need to share these with each other so that we can learn from each other. Innoleren is like the tightrope walker's stick, without a stick the tightrope walker will not reach the other side. What is important is that we give each other that stick. That we let each other know when we are working on a nice educational innovation. So as with that new article, that new grant, or new job, share the new ideas in the field of education. With colleagues inside and outside the faculty, inspire and be inspired by others. In the end, we are all tightrope walkers who need a big stick to get to the other side.