Nominations teacher awards: eight contenders nominated by eight associations

A job well conceived is a job half done. At Sticky, the study association for Computer Science and Information Science, they are “extremely pleasantly surprised”. For the first time in its 14 years of existence, the Sticky board has nominated a teacher for the annual award of Teacher of the Year. And lo and behold: their Information Science teacher Frans Wiering is one of the four teachers nominated by the jury.

“Quite rightly so,” says Sticky’s board member of education Victor Severijns. He was the driving force behind the nomination of Wiering. Pioneering work that took a lot of time. Other boards have complete ready-made plans for the annual procedure for nominations. Some study associations are so organised that they are often remarkably successful, such as Alcmaeon's psychologists or UBV’s biologists.

Involvement
About Wiering, who owes his nomination to a poll among students on the Sticky website, among other things, Severijns says: “He is a committed teacher who is constantly trying to get even more out of his education and from his students. Moreover, he shows much more involvement outside of the lectures than you might expect. He is quick to know your name and also knows exactly what you are doing.”

Severijns does not want to say much more than this as there will be a second selection round in which he must convince the jury that Wiering is really the best teacher at the entire university.

Four candidates
The Information Science teacher is one of the four candidates nominated by a jury led by Professor of Water Management Ruud Schotting for the prize of Teacher of the Year. The other three are: Gerda Andringa (nominated by the students of the UU department of University College Roosevelt), Gery Nijenhuis (nominated by Vugs geography students) and Edwin Pos (nominated by UBV of biology).

There are also four nominees for the Teacher Talent of the Year prize for young and less experienced teachers. These are Linda van de Bunt (nominated by Sams of Medicine), Djoeke van der Sluis (nominated by Alcmaeon of Psychology), Arjan van Tilborg (nominated by Vocus of Educational Sciences), and Lorena de Vita (nominated by UHSK of History).

In total, there were 33 teachers who were nominated by their associations. The winners will be announced during the Education Parade on March 5th in the Utrecht University Hall. The Lecturer of the Year and Teacher Talent of the Year receive a cash prize of 5000 and 3000 euros respectively, in addition to a trophy. The study associations who nominated these winners receive 1000 euros.