Inaugural lecture Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens

Professor Noordegraaf-Eelens' inaugural lecture is titled Educational Concerns: 'The positive societal impact' of transformative academic education. 

Creating societal impact is a top priority for many higher education institutes. Erasmus University Rotterdam wants to generate ‘positive societal impact’. In her inaugural address, Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens, professor in transformative higher education, warns against too instrumental impact approaches. She states that the generation of impact through education calls for educational transformations. First and foremost, universities need to resist an emphasis on ‘solving’ societal problems. Instead, they should focus on dealing with societal ‘concerns’, which cannot be eliminated and require long-term attention and commitment. Furthermore, she argues that education is not merely responding to societal concerns – it is a societal concern itself.

Social inequalities, for example, are strengthened in and via higher education, and this should be addressed. Educational programmes need to deal with the ways in which educational programs increase (or decrease) social inequalities. In her address, Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens shows how the Rotterdam Arts & Sciences Lab (in short, RASL) transforms higher education. This is a collaboration between Erasmus University Rotterdam, Codarts Rotterdam and Willem de Kooning Academy UAS Rotterdam. The combination of arts, sciences and society offers a rich ‘knowledge context’, in which staff and students relate to societal contexts and discuss and

The reception will take place in the same building afterwards.