There is a lot to know about education, about learning.

Cees van der Vleuten: I am proud of our Master’s program, and I will tell you why. In my view innovation in education is very dependent on leadership. Part of leadership is credibility.

Being a respected clinician (or any other health domain) brings credibility. The best leaders for promoting innovation are not the professional educationalists, but representatives from the domain itself. However, these leaders need to be qualified. They need to be research informed. Here is where our Master program comes in. Relative to other master programs in the world, ours is very research informed. Many of our graduates become education leaders in the field.

In my own institution we have 5 program directors (undergraduate and postgraduate) who have a Master’s qualification or higher in education. Our Dean has a PhD in medical education. He has personally led a complete curriculum overhaul with many innovative elements that were based on earlier empirical findings from research we collaboratively were involved in. My personal motivation as a researcher in education is the realization that what we do in education is not always that optimal or logical from a research perspective. There is a lot to know about education, about learning. There is a wealth of evidence and theory. Not knowing this body of knowledge is like treating your patients by a lay person.

Therefore, leaders need to be qualified and prepared. I am proud that our Master program fulfills this role of creating future education leaders.

Cees van der Vleuten