Students had a pretty tough time in the past few years. In this video (Dutch), you can see how students are working with doctors, scientists, and patients in the Bachelor Research Hub to research the development and treatment of long-term problems after a corona infection (long covid). There is now a PhD student in my lab who is continuing the students’ research.” Investors and foundations noticed this and wanted to fund follow-up research. In 2021, a group of students came up with a new treatment for a specific type of brain cancer that is especially common in children. “Absolutely! A few years ago, we set up the Bachelor Research Hub: a well-equipped laboratory where bachelor students conduct research together with doctors, scientists and patients. Do you already have results that show this approach is working?
But it doesn't stop there! To integrate our findings with society, we also involve patients, patient organizations, foundations, and the business sector.” This is why we increasingly seek cooperation with other faculties of Utrecht University and with other universities, such as Wageningen University & Research and Eindhoven University of Technology. In our education, we have students from different fields work together, after having first built a strong knowledge base in their own subject. It requires other disciplines, such as economics, humanities, social sciences, and technical disciplines.
Addressing these complex issues cannot be done from a medical or biomedical perspective alone. So to achieve that synergy, do you actively involve students in scientific research early in their education, and have researchers and physicians teach more about their own work? Ultimately, patients benefit from research that might otherwise never have been done.” After all, Aristotle once said, 'Teaching is the highest form of understanding'. Teaching also enhances the growth of researchers and physicians. They can use students’ research results and data in their own work. These individuals benefit from students' brainpower and their critical thinking skills. The students are instructed by researchers and doctors. This gives the students a solid training in academic skills they need later in their careers, such as critical thinking, communication, creative problem-solving and collaboration with each other and other disciplines. That is synergy.ĭuring their bachelor studies, students in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences can participate in real research and work on solutions that address these complex social problems, such as diseases for which no good treatments are available. The totality thus created becomes greater than the sum of its parts. We can face these problems even better by forming collaborations that create a win-win situation for all parties. In the health domain, these include increasing aging, expensive medicines, the threat of a new pandemic and the huge rise of technology such as artificial intelligence. Niels: “The challenges we face as a society are becoming increasingly complex. Your lecture is titled: Synergy between education, research and society. Read more about his educational model in this interview. That is what Professor Niels Bovenschen stated in his inaugural lecture, which he gave yesterday in Utrecht University's Academy Building. By stimulating Medicine and Biomedical Sciences students to work together on scientific research early in their education, we can better address complex social problems.
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