Arnold Bregt receives the farewell print by Henk van Ruitenbeek. Photo Resource This took place during a mini-symposium at Omnia on – what else? – education. In addition to the serious topics, there was also room for laughter, for example during the Arnold Bregt quiz organized by rector Carolien Kroeze and her predecessor Arthur Mol. To top it all off, they announced that a room in Aurora would be named after Bregt.
One of the speakers at the symposium was WUR alumna Leonoor Opstelten, who made a passionate plea for more creativity in education. ‘WUR wants to train responsible changemakers. But to really change things, you have to shake things up, break through systems and challenge the status quo. So you shouldn’t let students get bogged down in an excess of essays and exams. Instead, let students develop a game or write a play to complete a course.’
After the speakers, Kroeze and Mol took the floor for an Arnold Bregt quiz. ‘What is Arnold’s most phenomenal achievement at WUR?’ A few possible answers: introducing five new programmes; reducing the number of resits with the approval of the student council; ensuring that education could continue during the coronavirus pandemic? Bregt himself expects that the introduction of the Academic Career Framework will have the greatest impact in the long term.
Anne van den Ban
Instead of bringing gifts, guests were asked to make a donation to the Anne van den Ban Fund. A total of €1,600 was raised for scholarships for promising students from low-income countries who want to do a master’s degree in Wageningen. In addition, there were gifts after all. National teacher of the year Birgit Boogaard made an illustration of the symposium on the spot. Mol and Kroeze also announced that room B9240 in Aurora will henceforth be called the Arnold Bregt Room. Finally, Bregt received a personal farewell print from Wageningen illustrator Henk van Ruitenbeek.
When Bregt himself took the floor, he gave a brief overview of WUR’s more than 100-year history to show that the university has been quite adaptive over the years. ‘I feel that I am leaving at the right time. It is a time full of new initiatives and developments, and I am sure that Wageningen will continue to flourish over the next hundred years.’ Finally, he thanked his wife Nelleke. ‘It was by far the busiest time of my entire career. While you were reading the newspaper on Saturday morning, I was preparing the agenda for the meeting with the rector. Now we can read the newspaper together.’
In June, we spoke at length with Arnold Bregt about his time as Dean of Education. You can read that story here. Bregt’s successor is Dick de Ridder, who took over the reins on 1 September.
Translated by DeepL
