How it started
I am passionate about tertiary education, because of its complexity and the creativity it requires to deal with this complexity. I am also passionate about tertiary education because of the centrality of people. Seeing people develop in a way that they would never have thought possible, and being able to contribute to this development is an amazing feeling.
I was late in discovering this passion. At primary school in Roosendaal, a town in the south of the Netherlands, I wanted to be a mathematics teacher, but that was probably just because I was good at maths. However, an interest in science and research replaced the thought of teaching during secondary school. I took all the ‘right’ steps to become a scientist: BSc in Physics and Chemistry, MSc in Statistical Physics and a PhD in Physics, all at the Catholic University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. While I was studying towards my Masters and later my PhD I facilitated tutorials for undergraduate students, which I thoroughly enjoyed, although – in hindsight – I can say there was much to improve in my teaching. My subsequent experiences as a research scientist in the industry were disappointing and I decided to give my childhood thoughts of becoming a teacher another go. I enrolled at teacher training college: the Hogeschool Katholieke Leergangen in Tilburg (A Dutch Hogeschool is a polytechnic that teaches vocationally oriented degree programmes).
After three months I was completely sold on education. I loved learning about educational systems and models and theories of teaching and learning, as well as the creativity required for developing engaging and purposeful learning activities. I left my research job for a position as undergraduate degree lecturer at Hogeschool West-Brabant.