I teach four course units in three days, namely: research
methods, Bachelor’s theses, research practice and mentor
groups. I spend the other two days doing my own thing, unconnected
with the Bachelor’s programme in psychology. I’m trying
to focus on IT, to get more experience in programming, particularly
in gathering and analysing data.
I have a cross-faculty Research Master’s degree in
Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience. My original plan was to
pursue a PhD; I applied but nothing came of it. I then applied for
a teaching position here and soon realized that I actually prefer
teaching to conducting research.
The thing I like about the course units I teach is that the
department has a sort of omnipresence: every student must follow
our course units. I teach students the basics of academic learning,
academic writing skills, giving academic presentations or carrying
out empirical research. This lays the foundations for an academic
future, so that students can decide for themselves where their
interests lie in the more specialized departments.
Psychology ties in nicely with the concept of the Teaching Unit;
you put it to good use anywhere. It’s a very broad concept,
so it’s not only useful in psychology itself, but also in
lots of smaller fields. Learning from each other about all the
different disciplines and understanding the links between them is
great fun. I think that for many people, a Bachelor’s degree
in psychology together with a Master’s degree in a subject
related to psychology forms a solid basis for a career. Psychology
covers so much ground, whatever your specialization and whatever
you plan to do.
Prospective students can expect an international learning
environment, as we teach the Bachelor’s programme in
psychology in both English and Dutch. Students are given a lot of
freedom; they can compile their own package of course units, and
new initiatives and ideas are welcomed. Finally, they can look
forward to living in a great, young, lively city.
