Awareness and Desire as Strategy for Change. The Integration of Research and Education at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Dutch universities of applied sciences (UASs) had been teaching-only institutes since their legal origin in 1960. The development of higher education (HE) in Europe in the past twenty years requires UASs to embody and become hybrid organ-isations where education and research are integrated. Ever-changing, complex society needs professionals with overarching skills, such as critical, analytical and reflective ones. The Dutch government has framed this as a generic need for research abilities in all higher education students, in addition to framing research as a pedagogy for the development of skills. The new millennium brought Dutch UASs national funding for research and the appointment of lectoren (research professors). In 2015, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) board substantiated this national incentive in a renewed university-wide strategy to integrate research in all educational programmes. The AUAS strategic programme ‘Research into Education’ (Dutch: Onderzoek in Onderwijs; OiO) was designed to assist in the implementation of this aim. Educational managers and lecturers were positioned as the central actors in manifesting the intended changes. Five projects were framed, spanning from hands-on, tailor-made assistance of teaching staff to the creation of national and international networks. The aims and mechanisms for change of these projects as well as their results are presented in this chapter.
Although AUAS was successful in realizing a broad desire to integrate education and research, monitoring and evaluation of the process shows how little we collectively know about functional connections between research and education, especially in applied higher education. A future strategic programme needs to bring about profes-sional enhancement at all levels to maintain the already-realised awareness and desire and take the process further to effect ability, knowledge, and reinforcement (Hiatt, 2018). It is a work in progress, yet hands-on university development can become empirically founded practice by smart and precise choices and design.