Demonstrating the link between research, societal challenges and university continuing education: the sustainability theme page

Abstract

Utrecht University’s commitment to University Continuing Education (UCE) is reflected in its motto ‘Sharing Science, Shaping Tomorrow.’ Through UCE, the university aims to make state of the art knowledge, expertise and research results accessible for professionals, practitioners and organisations. This helps support their development and labour market positioning, as well as bolstering their ability to navigate personal, organisational and societal challenges. This perspective on UCE, however, is not widely recognised by alumni and other -potential participants. One attempt to bridge this gap is to develop so-called theme pages in Utrecht University’s online UCE environment. These pages function as an online space where the relation between research, societal challenges and UCE is made visible when reaching out to potential participants, governments, NGOs and businesses. In this short paper we sketch the background, aims and design of the theme pages, taking the sustainability theme page as a starting point.