Since her appointment eight years ago, Janne has been involved in a range of teaching roles. Currently, her focus as coordinator is on first-year students. This means she spends less time teaching in a traditional classroom setting and is more involved in designing the programme and coordinating the Academic Skills and Research Practicum 1 courses. Janne explains, “These two courses complement each other: Academic Skills takes place in the first semester, followed by Research Practicum 1 in the second. This setup allows me to follow new students throughout the entire year and closely witness their growth.” During these two courses, there is a strong emphasis on providing personal support for students. Each student is assigned a mentor with whom they can have personal conversations. The mentor serves as the first point of contact before they, for instance, seek guidance from a student advisor or psychologist. “As a mentor, it’s nice to get to know students personally, watch their interests grow, and see them develop as students.”
When Janne considers challenges in education, she immediately points to the major issue universities currently face: budget cuts by the new government. “How can we maintain the quality of education, with sufficient contact hours and personal support, despite limited resources? Ultimately, we are here for the students, and we want to deliver the best possible education, but can we still do that in the way we aim to?” As coordinator, Janne collaborates with the programme to explore what students truly need. They critically examine the curriculum, which Janne finds valuable and sees as an opportunity for new directions.
A second significant challenge, particularly in the Academic Skills course, is the increasing use of generative AI (such as ChatGPT) by students. “While AI could potentially improve the quality of certain assignments, the challenge remains that we don’t know exactly where the input for these systems comes from. Transparency and openness are essential in academia, and tools like ChatGPT lack these qualities. Therefore, we must think carefully about how we teach students to engage with these tools and how we assess which skills they need to develop independently.” Janne believes it’s clear that generative AI cannot be ignored, and that education must adapt to these developments. “It just shows how dynamic and innovative it is to work in education!”