465 | This sunday I met Prof. Dr. Cathy Hsu from Hongkong, Sjoerd Gehrels as the project manager of Stenden Rangsit University Bangkok, and two students of Stenden University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden.

Cathy is a member of the Advisory Board of our Stenden Rangsit University in Thailand. She joined the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in July 2001. Previously, she was a professor at Kansas State University. Earlier this sunday she conferred with Klaas Wybo van der Hoek, Executive Board Stenden Hogeschool, and Dr. Marc Antonius Jacobs, Dean of the Stenden International Hospitality Management School of Higher Education, Leeuwarden.

Sjoerd and I discussed with our guest the two types of Ph.D-programs at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where Cathy is working as Associate Director of Academic Affairs.

Master student of International Service Management, Mandy Wen, who took care for Prof. Dr. Hsu during her visit in the Netherlands, got valuable informations about the education system in Hong Kong; Bachelor student of Tourism Management, Stefanie Henneberg, informed about the further developments of our Stenden Rangsit University in Thailand, because she was there for 5 months following the Grand Tour® of Stenden and she would like to assist our fast growing university there in the future.

It was a nice, inspiring and intercultural meeting!

From left to right: Sjoerd Gehrels (Stenden Leeuwarden / Stenden Rangsit University Bangkok); Prof. Dr. Cathy Hsu (Associate Director of Academic Affairs, Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Prof. Dr. Martin Gertler (Director of Academic Affairs, Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden); Stefanie Henneberg (Bachelor student Tourism Management, Leeuwarden); Mandy Wen (Master student International Service Management, Leeuwarden).

464 | Der Wissenschaftsrat kritisiert in einem umfangreichen Statement die Qualität der Lehre an deutschen Hochschulen. Offenbar meint er die universitären Hochschulen - denn an den Fachhochschulen wird bei einem Deputat von 18 oder 19 Wochenstunden meist mehr Lehre von Professoren geleistet als überhaupt verantwortbar…

AFP meldet:

Hamburg (AFP) — Der Wissenschaftsrat stellt der Lehre an den deutschen Hochschulen ein schlechtes Zeugnis aus. Für dringende Verbesserungen seien 1,104 Milliarden Euro pro Jahr erforderlich, berichtet der “Spiegel” unter Berufung auf eine Stellungnahme des wichtigsten Beratungsgremiums der deutschen Wissenschaftspolitik. Die Experten von Bund, Ländern und Wissenschaftsorganisationen kritisieren darin unter anderem die Qualifikation der Professoren: Die Hochschullehrer seien “weitgehend Autodidakten” und bedürften einer “professionell durchgeführten Aus- und Weiterbildung”.

Noch immer hänge die Karriere eines Wissenschaftlers fast ausschließlich von seinen Forschungsleistungen ab: “Erfolgreiche Forschung verhilft zu neuen Geldern, Mitarbeitern und besserer Ausstattung, größeres Engagement in der Lehre hingegen führt häufig zu höherer Arbeitslast durch mehr Studierende und mehr Prüfungen.”

Kommentar

Tatsächlich werden Professoren nur für die Forschung (durch jahrelange Promotion und Habilitation), nicht aber für die Lehre (außer durch z. B. zweitägige Kurzseminare) ausgebildet. Als Hochschullehrer sind wir Professoren - in Deutschland - Autodidakten. An Schulen wäre das kein denkbarer Standard.

Im kommenden Jahr 2009 wird - so zeichnet sich inzwischen ab - ein neues, bundesweit nutzbares Weiterbildungsangebot an den Start gehen, das besonders ambitionierten Hochschullehrern hilfreich sein könnte… Mehr darüber beizeiten hier!

463 | Seit 2003, also seit 5 Jahren, arbeitet das Medienzentrum der RFH Köln eng mit Apple zusammen. Ich durfte das Medienzentrum damals errichten und leiten; heute dient es den rund 1.200 Studierenden des »Media Design« und des »Media Management« als Lern- und Erfahrungsplattform. Inzwischen sind dort nicht nur Dozenten, sondern auch Studierende und Alumni aktiv - als »Apple Certified Trainer«.

Einer von ihnen, Mark Rickert, wirbt gerade in der Media-Design-internen elektronischen Lernumgebung »Moodle« mit einem Video für seinen Einführungskurs in das hervorragende Apple-Programm »Motion«, mit dem schnell und perfekt 2D- und 3D-Animationen mit Szenen, Bildern, Bewegungen und Tönen komponiert werden können:

In zwei Wochen sind die Kolloquien zur Bachelor-Prüfung. Mark gehört zum ersten Kurs dieser Art an der RFH: »Bachelor of Arts Media Design«.

Mit seiner studienbegleitenden Erfahrung als Trainer hat er sich - gemeinsam mit seinem Studienkurs - in hervorragender Weise für den »Markt« des Designs, vor allem des Mediendesigns, bewährt.

Neben ihm erweisen sich inzwischen eine Vielzahl von Mediendesigner als hochkompetent, wenn es etwa um die Erarbeitung von Logo und Corporate Design oder auch um Cross Media geht.

Dieser erste akkreditierte und nach wie vor einzige Studiengang in Deutschland, der zum »Bachelor of Arts Media Design« führt und die Studierenden gemäß dem Leitbild »Architekten der medialen Kommunikation« ausbildet, erweist sich immer mehr als eine nicht nur rheinische Spezialität, sondern eine international bedeutsame Studienrichtung.

462 | The conference on developing sustainable tourism in the North Sea Region was organised by the lead partner, the Christian Albrechts University Kiel, at the island of Sylt, Northern Germany, from 19 to 20 June 2008. Participants were also colleagues of our Stenden University of Applied Sciences.

Tourism destinations around the North Sea Coast face similar challenges in building up or improving their tourism business. For almost two years, the To Learn project has researched and analysed the situation of sustainable tourism in the North Sea region. Well-known research institutions in close cooperation with experienced tourism managers entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders have elaborated strategies to improve tourism sustainability.

In particular, promising initiatives that have proved to be successful in finding sustainable ways of tourism development have been identified.

Read the whole story…

461 | Caroline van der Roest and Maaike van Althuis, two students in the Master of International Leisure and Tourism Studies at our Stenden School of Graduate Studies, will go to Indonesia for a month (July) to participate in two development projects: Panta Ashi and Talenta.

Together with 20 students from Leeuwarden they hope to be able to contribute to the Indonesian society. The students will stay in Yogjakarta in Java.

Panta Ashi is a home for people with limited intellectual faculties. The students will coach sporty and creative activities (see www.stichting-camelia.nl). Talenta is an organisation focussing on projects in small villages, called Dessa’s. The students will assist in the general development of these dessa’s, for instance by helping the residents how to get on with their cattle, and the establishment of houses and schools.

Read the whole story…

460 | This week, our Stenden Lector for Leadership & Change Management, Dr. Gabriël Anthonio, and I visited the University for Humanistics in Utrecht. The university is mainly a graduate school granting MAs and PhDs. Its MAs (+/- two hundred students) specialize in Human Resource Development and integrity management, existential counseling, qualitative research methods, and in providing advanced teaching accreditation.

There are ca. 37 participants in the DBA/PhD program and ca. 20 students doing PhDs in other fields. The goal of the university is to further humanist professional practice, as well as to promote humanist perspectives on interdisciplinary studies.

Prof. Dr. Hugo Letiche, Program Director PhD/DBA of the University for Humanistics, explaining the specialities of the program:

The DBA/PhD program is modeled along the lines of the DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) in that it incorporates taught modules, and includes structured supervision as well as encouraging peer support. It is an international ‘Executive PhD program’ that, when the UvH started with in 2000, was something new in Europe.

The DBA/PhD is a part-time program designed for working professionals with an interest in the field(s) of the humanization of work, complexity theory, organizational anthropology, training and innovation, and ‘meaning in organization’.

Lector Dr. Gabriël Anthonio earned his PhD (Dr.) in 2006, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Harry Kunneman and Prof. Dr. Hugo Letiche who was our host at this academic meeting in Utrecht.

An innovative concept

Firstly, this PhD/DBA program develops the ability to analyze situations and to realize multidisciplinary responses. Participants keep in touch with one another through the workshops and conference-like seminars. Working with a cohort of like-minded participants makes the program’s PhD experience much more rewarding.

Secondly, the program focuses on the humanization of organization. Complexity theory, which studies: selforganization at bifurcation points, the power of simple guiding principles, and emerging coherence, is an important inspiration. Complexity theory provides rich practice-based intellectual stimulus. Much more research is needed into the notions of self-adaptive and emergent systems and their links to individual, group and social interaction.

Thirdly, the program approaches activity and social ethical issues from a practical, hands-on perspective. Managing and organizing are practices that become ‘true’ via events. How can we understand the ‘practices of meaning’ in managing and organizing? The study of organizational change and culture provides an important focus.

Fourthly, because we assume that the participants want to make active use of their advanced studies in their practice, the theme of applying knowledge gained has a prominent place in the program. The PhD contributes to the practitioners’ work situation as well as adding to one’s stock of knowledge.

The successful candidate will have shown convincing evidence of the capacity to pursue original research, resulting in a thesis suitable for publication.

The main foci of the program are on organizational change, normative practice and qualitative research methodology. The humanization of organization is studied via themes such as:
(1) emergence and coherence,
(2) organizational development,
(3) authenticity, spirituality and personal narratives,
(4) the relationship between ethics and action.

Prof. Dr. Hugo Letiche has designed the PhD/DBA for the University for Humanistics and is the head of the course.

In the PhD/DBA, research, theory and practitioners’ insights all have a role to play. Many leading scholars in the fields studied, lecture in the workshops. In their role as supervisors, the faculty members provide stimulus, constructive advice and informed support.

Docents of Stenden Hogeschool and also alumni of me from RFH Cologne, University of Applied Sciences, are invited to apply for this program, if interested. The course always starts in january, with a group of 12 students max. For more information and download of the brochure look at the website of the program. There will be an information day in the first two weeks of september; prospective promovendi who want to be with us at that day should contact me asap.