The Radboud Teaching and Learning Centre congratulates Karen Geertsema, Edwin van Meerkerk and Jelle van Gurp with receiving a Comenius scholarship for their research projects. The NRO offers three types of scholarships for the Comenius programme. The Teaching Fellows grant that Geertsema and Gurp received concerns €50.000 and is for a maximum duration of 18 months. The Leadership Fellows grant that Meerkerk received concerns €50.000 and is for a maximum duration of 42 months.
Three Radboud lecturers receive a Comenius grant for educational innovation
The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) awarded the scholarships to these three Radboud lecturers to put their vision on educational development into practice. The lecturers can now join the Comenius Network, a network consisting of all laureates of a Comenius grant. In this network the main focus is on the exchange and distribution of knowledge about education innovation.

The Migration Game
Karen Geertsema, lecturer Migration Law, received the Teaching Fellows grant from the NRO for het project proposal The Migration Game: Educative simulation as medium for interdisciplinary and international knowledge exchange.
Europe is the future work field for students in migration law. However, with only theoretical knowledge reality often turns out to be more complex. Karen Geertsema and Tesseltje de Lange, professor in European Migration Law, developed an educational simulation game for the legal master education within the programme Human Rights and Migration. The Migration Game is a simulation game in which we offer our students a unique practice experience in the international playing field. By linking theory and practice, students experience how complex the reality of European migration law is. The Migration game is an educational innovation that will impulse cooperation with other European academic institutions. By playing the simulation simultaneously with other students throughout Europe cross-border knowledge exchange is made possible. This way students develop skills in legal communication and international collaboration.
In the spirit of the arts
Jelle van Gurp, lecturer at Radboudumc, received the Teaching fellows grant from the NRO for his project proposal In the spirit of the arts: practicing an empathic approach for master's students medicine.
When students of medicine start working in healthcare, they often come into contact with people who struggle with mental issues. We expect these young professionals to be able to help these patients well, while their education provides them with hardly any space to practice important skills necessary for this. One of those skills would be having the ability to understand and attune to the complex feelings and thoughts of these patients. This causes stress and the feeling of being left empty-handed. With the help of literature, creative writing and theatre, this transdisciplinary project offers students a safe rehearsal space, in which they can better prepare for good, person-centred care to their patients.

You Have a Part to Play: Higher Education for Sustainability
Edwin van Meerkerk, Associate professor at the Department for Modern Languages and Culture, received the Leadership Fellows grant from the NRO for his project You Have a Part to Play: Higher Education for Sustainability. This is the first time that someone from the Radboud University receives this prestigious grant.
‘You have a part to play’ is the motto of Radboud University. This motto makes us aware that Higher Education is more than the transfer of skills and knowledge, but also personal development. In the project 'You Have a Part to Play' we are working on new didactical tools for sustainability education in which students learn to use their knowledge and skills for the world of tomorrow. Together with ArtEZ University of the Arts, we are building educational methods that help students to become aware of the complex issues of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
On the 7th of July: Comenius grant receivers in the spotlights
Each month the TLC organises the education café to meet colleagues and chat about relevant, exciting and inspiring topics with regard to education. On Thursday the 7th of July the TLC arranged an extra festive education café to celebrate receiving the Comenius grants.
The receivers of the grants will talk about their projects and their motivation to work on improving education. There will also be a toast to celebrate the successful start and a wonderful summer break.
The gathering is from the 7th of July from 16.00-18.00h in the Teachers' lounge of the TLC at Thomas van Aquinostraat 1. Everybody is welcome, please sign up.
Contact information
- Organizational unit
- Radboud Teaching and Learning Centre
- Theme
- Education