Adding value in the Academy

I recently had the honor of presenting the first Valorization Prize (see www.tilburguniversity.edu/nl/samenwerken/advies-en-dienstverlening/valorisatie/valorisatieprijs). At the time, I remarked on the Academy’s role in value creation. Or to put this another way – how can we differentiate ourselves from other universities? I mentioned four particular points.

Firstly, research must be innovative and must – as often as possible – result in the publication of work that adds to the existing body of human knowledge and insight. Nothing too controversial about that – after all, research is at the foundation of all universities. However, I have the distinct impression that not all work that is published can be said to distinguish itself from the rest. We could set the bar a little higher in this regard.

We can also differentiate ourselves when it comes to our academic teaching. In this area, a link could (and should) be made with research in the Academy. That will be quite a challenge, particularly for Bachelor’s degree students. But innovations in teaching are, I think, necessary to challenge students, for example by using case studies or by having them write papers and reports. We need to spend more time thinking about how we can innovate in our teaching methods.

Then we turn to valorization. This is essentially a question of relevance to society – using our knowledge to raise additional funding by developing partnerships with various sectors. However, valorization is not solely to do with economic gain. It also involves notions of social and cultural value and evidence-based methods of working. As far as I am concerned, valorization does not involve imposing limitations on the ‘front-end’ of our research, but it does require us to look more closely at the value of the results of our research. In the field of human and social sciences, this means thinking not only in terms of economic activity and entrepreneurship, but also in terms of developing new concepts, criteria and profiles, policy advice, input for new legislation and teaching and training programs.

These three areas constitute the primary activities of a university community. But these activities are not possible without an excellent supporting infrastructure. This, too, marks out a good university from just an average or mediocre one. We need to focus on ‘operational excellence’ in order to support our primary activities. Good team work between teachers and researchers on the one side and ‘support staff’ on the other will always be invaluable.