The Master of Health Professions Education

The quality of education for healthcare professionals substantially impacts the future of healthcare. The effects of teaching methods, curriculum development or educational research go beyond the classroom into patient care and health services. To uphold the high level of education, the School of Health Professions Education (SHE) offers the international Master of Health Professions Education that trains professionals to design, innovate and research educational practices.

This academic year, two staff members of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences enrolled in the two-year, part-time master’s. Daniëlle Zijlstra and Anke Wind already hold multiple educational roles within our faculty. They each share a passion for education and will use the master’s to expand that passion with the latest knowledge and skills in health professions education and research. We talked to them after their first three weeks of the programme.

Daniëlle and Anke are teachers at heart, they joined the master’s programme with an intrinsic motivation to improve their practices. Anke: “This programme supports education and all related tasks. We’ll learn how courses are embedded in an organisation, what it requires to have and change education and what the latest developments in education are.”

Daniëlle: “As teachers, we already apply practices such as Problem-Based Learning and Constructive Alignment. This master will let us delve deeper into the theory behind those practices.”  The master’s is a part-time programme with 60% consisting of elective courses. Students are encouraged to use electives and adapt the content to their individual needs and challenges in their daily work. Daniëlle: “We often have the intention to look at our manner of teaching to improve it, but there is always a lack of time. This programme allows us to do so. Being granted time to partake in the programme is also a form of recognition and reward for teaching staff.”

In the first three weeks of the master’s, students come together for a three week on-campus programme. Since the master’s has an international student population, 30+ participants travel from all around the world to Maastricht to get to know each other and talk to staff and graduate students. Anke: “It was really nice to meet so many different people and join together in social activities. Combining our daily work, family life and the introduction was an intense start of the programme. I did learn a lot from the graduation ceremony where research projects were presented. For example, the results of a comparative study between traditional assessment at the end of a period and programmatic assessment. It was motivating to listen to the presentations and hopefully stand on stage myself within two years.”

Are you passionate about Health Professions Education and looking for ways to get inspired and acquire a theoretical foundation in this field? The MHPE programme is two years and part-time, mostly online and flexible in content and time. You will work with peers from all over the world under the guidance of experts from our own School of Health Professions Education (SHE) as well as established external staff. More information about the MHPE programme here or e-mail the support office at mhpe@maastrichtuniversity.nl

FHML offers two (free) places in the MHPE programme to faculty members. For more information and to apply: secretariaat-dir-oi@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Text: Ruben Beeckman