Because of the coronacrisis and subsequent measures, the final will take place digitally. ‘Postponing the event did cross our minds,’ says Rik Seelen from the organising committee. ‘But we don’t think it’s likely to host an event like we used to, even in September. And this event is also meant to express our appreciation towards teachers. Especially the last few months, they haven't had the easiest of times.’
Seelen explains what’s different about the final this year. ‘The teachers will still give a mini lecture of fifteen minutes as usual, but we’ll broadcast their lectures through a BlueJeans livestream. We don’t want to spoil too much about the program, but we did ask the finalists to apply their research area to something campus-related, to make it a bit more tangible for the audience.’
After the mini lectures, the audience can cast their vote digitally. ‘We also have a student jury and a teacher jury,’ says Seelen. ‘Criteria will be a bit different this year. You can’t really judge the finalists on problems with audio, a bad connection or interaction with a room. There isn’t really a room to interact with.’
The selection of these three finalists also went differently because of the crisis, says Seelen. ‘Normally, after every study association named their respective winners of the Decentral Education Award, we would have a semi-final somewhere in April. Because the crisis was at its peak back then, we couldn’t organise this. So we chose to nominate the finalists based on their motivation letter and their views and vision on education.’
The final takes place on Tuesday the 16th of June, starting at 16:00. Immediately after the final, the organisation will announce if either Siesling, De Gooijer or Lemay will be the winner of the Central Education Award worth €2500 and the title ‘UT Teacher of the Year’.
