Faculty: ESSB
Educational theme: bachelor and master
Project lead: Lisette Ligtendag
Faculty liaison: Brenda Vermeeren
Duration: 2022-2024
Status: Running
Mission
The aim of this project is threefold:
- Improve academic education by re-developing the Bachelor thesis and Master thesis in Public Administration in such a way that they enable the development of impact competences of students and by developing a framework for an impact driven internship and theses which can be applied by lecturers across the EUR to improve their academic education.
- Increase societal impact of academic education by providing external organizations with helpful insights, advice and solutions on issues they are dealing with.
- Strengthen the ties with the outside world by working more closely together with external organizations throughout the Bachelor thesis and Master thesis trajectories.
The project includes improvements both in the thesis (bachelor and master) and internship (master) trajectory, and the final research product (the bachelor and master theses). The trajectory will include more and structured interaction between students and the outside world to embed the research in the real world and enable bigger impact. The project will also include new ‘products for impact’, i.e. deliveries such as impactful communication products (e.g. a post on LinkedIn communicating the findings of the research) and elements in the final product (e.g. a design/solution for a societal problem), and a new master thesis product in the shape of a design that helps to solve an issue faced by a client.
Implementation
Bachelor thesis: outside in and inside out
This project will develop a bachelor project phase in which students go through the empirical cycle based on a real-world research question of a public sector organization (outside in) and in which students learn to communicate their insights and advice to the outside world (inside out). At this moment we are designing this using the Carpe Diem Method.
Master thesis Internship: competence driven internship for Impact
This project will develop an internship trajectory in which students develop both personal growth competences and discipline-specific competences in preparation for their professional careers.
Master thesis: design-based impact project
This project will develop a master thesis trajectory in which students apply a design approach in order to come up with a well-grounded solution proposal for a real-life issue faced by an external client.