National Education Programme at the AUAS
The National Education Programme (Nationaal Programma Onderwijs, ‘NP Onderwijs’ for short) was created to restore and improve the standard of education during and after corona. The government is allocating 8.5 billion euro to educational institutions throughout the Netherlands for this purpose. Read about some of the ways the AUAS is spending the NPO funds.
On this page:
What is the AUAS spending the money on?
The extra funds are used to:
- Facilitate smooth student intake and transfers.
- Improve student well-being and social connection to their study programme.
- Offer support and guidance in the area of internships
- Reduce study delays and drop-out rates in the Teacher Training Programmes.
1. SMOOTH STUDENT INTAKE AND TRANSFER
A large chunk of the extra resources provided by the NPO funds goes towards promoting the smooth intake and transfer of students. The AUAS invests in a well-organised admission process and helping new students get off to a better start. There is also extra support, for example, for students who have fallen behind with their study programme.
In the section below, you can read interviews with young professional Mees from the Central Communication department and students Sofie from the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industry and Bouke from the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Law.
Mees discusses the concept of online open days and his suggestions for getting a feel for the atmosphere. Sofie talks about working with (international) student assistants and how they positively impact the quality of education. And Bouke talks about how learning communities helped him catch up on his study delays.
2. STUDENT WELL-BEING
The AUAS is investing another large portion of the NPO funds in student well-being and bonding. We are using the extra money to strengthen existing plans to ensure they remain usable after the completion of the NPO programme.
What are we doing?
► appointing extra student counsellors
► introducing on-campus student psychologists
► introducing Student Information desks in every building where students can drop in anytime
► providing extra funding for study associations (for student bonding)
► giving extra support to our refugee students (Students that Matter), Dutch Caribbean students and students with a disability.
The next section contains interviews with students Talitha from the Faculty of Sports and Nutrition, Fleur from the Faculty of Technology, Adam and Jessica from the Faculty of Health and Maurits from the Faculty of Business & Economics.
Talitha explains how she had the opportunity to promote the student perspective in early talks about how to spend the NEP funds. Fleur talks about the digital support she provides to lecturers. Adam and Jessica share stories from a specially organised dissecting class and Maurits talks about his work as a student mentor.
3. INTERNSHIPS
In corona time, many internships were cancelled or changed. The Faculty of Education used some of these funds to provide extra drama training courses. Drama training allows students to practice work placement skills. They re-enact a work situation in a small group and then discuss the case. Student Dennis tells us more about these drama training sessions.
4. TEACHER TRAINING
Minimising study delay and drop out
Now that the situation has returned to normal, the Faculty of Education is making up for the lack of in-person teaching with extra support via so-called supplementary instruction. These are small-scale sessions where students can actively work through challenging material under the guidance of a senior student. This is beneficial for the students' chances of success and for their connection with the programme.