Opinion | Want to become a professor or university administrator? Get the Basic Teaching Qualification first!
Anyone who wants to get a permanent job as a university professor should make sure to pass the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO). Professional university administrators could also use an extra lesson, suggests columnist Han van der Maas, who proposes a Basic Qualification in Administration.
After my grumbling about the Recognition and Appreciation program and the privacy mania at universities, it is time for a constructive contribution, and it is about governance. The UvA, we all agree, should be governed by academics. But academics do not see governance as their primary task; research and teaching are their preference. I am a co-founder of The Amsterdam Academy (De Amsterdamse Academie or DAA), a co-determination association that is represented in several UvA works councils. While we do not share the same views as the union parties, we do share an important issue: We are diligently seeking council members for the next works council elections. We find being a council member a very attractive position. You get one day a week for it, you get to know the ins and outs of the university and sometimes you get something done.
But that's not what the UvA academic thinks. It's hard to source candidates. What we need is gentle nudges. Gentle nudging would also be required when it comes to teaching, because many academics prefer to do research. Training in the field of education was not very popular. But then came the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO) and later the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO). Personally, I hate any form of certification, starting with the swimming certificate, but it works surprisingly well. Nowadays, everyone gets the BKO without grumbling and many even get an SKO. For this you have to take courses and do practical training hours in the form of giving lectures and working groups, setting up educational programs, et cetera. As a result, education improved, the appreciation of education increased and education gained a greater role in academic career paths. You can't get a permanent position as a university teacher without a BKO.
Basic Administrative Qualification
Against all my principles, I therefore propose the Basic Administration Qualification (BAQ) and the Senior Qualification in Management (SQM). These would require taking courses on leadership, recruitment, interviewing, annual interviews and the organization of the UvA. These would be fantastic courses from which, as a grown man, I would be prematurely expelled half the time. But that is probably related to my swimming lesson trauma.
You would also have to do practical training, for example, on the examination committee, program committee or works council, preferably for DAA. Of course, these could also be national committees or organizing committees of international congresses. For the SQM, you would have to be chairman of such a committee and gain managerial experience, and with an SQM you could become a professor, after which you would also be expected to carry out managerial tasks.
Finally, because I came up with all this, I should be the first to be honored by being awarded the BAQ and SQM by the president of the College Board. That would also be nicer for the teachers of the course "Coaching Leadership" from which I would then be excused.
Han van der Maas is a professor of psychological methods theory.
