Joke Fleer appointed as new Dean of the University of Groningen Honours College

At the start of this academic year, Professor Joke Fleer succeeded Elmer Sterken as the new Dean of the University of Groningen Honours College . Joke Fleer is Professor of Health Psychology at the UMCG and Head of SCOPE , the UMCG expertise centre for personal development. She is also the Dean of University College Groningen. This background makes Fleer ideally suited to lead the Honours College into the future.

Joke Fleer is very enthusiastic about what the Honours College has to offer UG students who seek an extra challenge. It allows them to broaden their horizons within and outside their faculties and engage with students from other disciplines, nationalities, and cultures, as well as with dedicated lecturers across the University. ‘This experience broadens students’ perspectives immensely,’ says Fleer. ‘They are building their interdisciplinary expertise on academic and societal challenges, but also learning a lot about themselves while working intensively with students from other faculties.’ According to Fleer, this interdisciplinary setting can be formative as well. It stimulates students to engage with others and put themselves in their position, ‘a quality that is very much needed in these polarizing times’.

For lecturers, the Honours College can serve even more as a hub for teaching innovation, where new ideas and innovative teaching methods can be tested outside the regular curriculum, Joke Fleer says. In her new position, she would like to strengthen this role of the Honours College in teaching innovation by creating more space for lecturers to learn from each other. This, in turn, will benefit their home faculties and the wider University. Having a place ‘where you, as a lecturer, can experiment and practice things is immensely valuable,’ says Fleer.