Masterlanguage is a collaboration between six Dutch universities, located in Groningen, Nijmegen, Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam and Tilburg. A nationwide programme such as Masterlanguage can only be successful through close collaboration between organisations and the sharing of knowledge between academic scholars. This page gives an overview of the organisational structure of the Masterlanguage programme: the participating institutions, the Organisational Board, the Programme Board, and the Disciplinary Teams.
Institutions and programmes
The Organisational Board
Masterlanguage’s Organisational Board facilitates the coordination between the participating institutions. The Organisational Board consists of:
- Leiden University: Mirjam de Baar, chair
- University of Amsterdam: Sabine van Wesemael
- VU Amsterdam: Freek Schmidt
- University of Groningen: Joost Keizer
- University Utrecht: Martha Frederiks
- Raboud University Nijmegen Mathilde Roza
The Programme Board
The Programme Board coordinates the development of Masterlanguage’s course programme. This board consists of the national coordinator, as well as the seven Disciplinary Team chairs.
- German: Stefan Sudhoff, Universiteit Utrecht
- English: Kees Dekker, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
- French: Jenny Doetjes, Universiteit Leiden
- Italian: Harald Hendrix, Universiteit Utrecht
- Classical Languages: Rutger Allan, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Dutch: Suzanne Aalberse, Universiteit van Amsterdam
- Spanish: Rebeca Fernández-Rodríguez, Universiteit Utrecht
The Disciplinary Teams
There are seven national Disciplinary Teams, one for every language on offer. Each team is responsible for the national programme offered in that language, and consists of teachers from the participating study programmes headed by the Team chair.
German
Stefan Sudhoff (UU), chair
Yvonne Delhey (RU)
Ansgar Mohnkern (UvA)
Wolfgang Kehrein (RUG)
Jenny Audring (LU)
English
Kees Dekker (RUG), chair
Janet Grijzenhout (LU)
K. Johanson (UvA)
Marcelle Cole (UU)
Olaf Koeneman (RU)
Diederik Oostdijk (VU)
French
Jenny Doetjes (LU), chair
Jelle Koopmans (UvA)
Alicia Montoya (RU)
Henriette de Swart (UU)
Katell Laveant (UU)
Jeanette den Toonder (RUG)
Marjolein van Tooren (VU)
Italian
Harald Hendrix (UU), chair
Maria Urban (UvA)
Claudio di Felice (LU)
Linda Pennings (UvA)
Carmen van den Bergh (LU)
Elio Baldi (UvA)
Monica Jansen (UU)
Luisa Meroni (UU)
Classical Languages
Rutger Allan (VU), chair
André Lardinois (RU)
Ruurd Nauta (RUG)
Ineke Sluiter (LU)
Els Rose (UU)
Mark Heerink (UvA)
Gerry Wakker (RUG)
Dutch
Suzanne Aalberse (UvA), chair
Jan Don (UvA)
Jos Joosten (RU)
Marijke de Belder (UU)
Luuk Lagerwerf (VU)
Geert Warnar (LU)
Sander Bax (TiU)
Sandra van Voorst (RUG)
Kila van der Starre (UU)
Jacqueline Bel (VU)
Jan Rock (UvA)
Esther Op de Beek (LU)
Jean Wagemans (UvA)
Ninke Stukker (RUG)
Henrike Jansen (LU)
Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul (UU)
Christine Liebrecht (TiU)
Frans Blom (UvA)
Lotte Jensen (RU)
Johan Koppenol (VU)
Dieuwke van der Poel (UU)
Lucas van der Deijl (RUG)
Sjef Barbiers (LU)
Jack Hoeksema (RUG)
Peter-Arno Coppen (RU)
Spanish
Rebeca Fernández Rodríguez (UU), chair
Maria del Carmen Parafit Couto (LU)
Eva J. Daussà (UvA)
Andreu van Hooft (RU)
Bob de Jonge (RUG)
Ellen-Petra Kester (UU)
The Masterlanguage Team
- Peter Coopmans is Masterlanguage’s national coordinator.
- Bernadette de Zeeuw is secretary to the board for Masterlanguage
- Robin van den Brule is junior policy adviser/education coordinator
- Sjoukje Blom heads Masterlanguage’s secretarial office.
Vision Masterlanguage Organisational Board
June 2021
The organisation of Masterlanguage is guided by these core objectives:
- Enriching and elevating university-level language- and culture education by interuniversitary and interdisciplinary collaboration, the exchange of knowledge between teachers of language and culture enlarges nation-wide expertise, high-quality target-language education, a contribution to the enhancement of the reputation of language and culture education, and enabling students to broaden their circle of academic peers.
- Interuniversitary collaboration within a transparent and egalitarian frame: close collaboration and a shared endeavour to realise Masterlanguage’s core objectives between all Dutch universities that offer language and culture studies (Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Groningen, Leiden University, Utrecht University, University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam, and, for Dutch language, Tilburg University).
- Firmly embedding the course offerings in the involved master’s programmes in a variety of ways: Masterlanguage’s courses are embedded in the participating universities’ involved language and culture studies programmes through inclusion in the EERs. There is a continuous endeavour to integrate Masterlanguage courses into the diverse curricula in varying and suitable ways.
- Taking responsibility for educational aims: Masterlanguage supports its participating institutions’ societal responsibility regarding the training and education of high school teachers in the areas of language and culture, and aims to contribute to the development of their knowledge in these fields.
- Increasing student influx by investing in a clearly recognisable identity, assuring that prospective students are adequately informed about the Masterlanguage courses on offer, making participation in Masterlanguage courses easier for students by offering combinable courses, and to investigate the use of online and/or hybrid education.
- Establishing and developing national cooperation efforts with organisations that aim to stimulate the areas of language and culture, increase the student influx of university-level teaching programmes, and increase the flexibility of and access to course programmes. Masterlanguage strives to contribute to transitional programmes in language studies which prepare students to enrol into the national education-oriented master’s programmes.