Working Together on Portfolio Management in Education

More than twenty board members, directors, and administrators from vocational and higher vocational education institutions across the country participated in Turner’s Masterclass on Integrated Portfolio Management in Leusden. The goal: to collectively reflect on the challenges these institutions are currently facing. The Turner consultants involved—Caecilia Moerdijk, Jasper Engelbert, and Tjalle Hoekstra—had developed a game to stimulate discussion among the participants. Using the fictional De Boom University of Applied Sciences as a case study, the Masterclass participants were presented with the very same problems they themselves are currently facing.

The context: De Boom University of Applied Sciences is a comprehensive university in Leusden, focused on innovation and practice-oriented education. Student enrollment is already declining, and in five years, the total student population will have shrunk by 10 percent. To ensure the college’s long-term sustainability, Hogeschool de Boom aims to strengthen its educational portfolio with a focus on business financial health. The goal of this game? To collaboratively develop a new educational portfolio for Hogeschool de Boom.

Constantly Balancing

In this way, participants were playfully confronted with challenges they also face at their own educational institutions: declining student enrollment, financially underperforming programs, the choice between a broadly oriented or a specialized educational institution, a lack of guidelines, and conflicting interests. For this “serious game,” participants were divided into small groups, after which each participant was assigned a role that was not necessarily their own: administrator, financial director, director of Education, and so on. In reality, of course, setting up a new educational portfolio takes years, but the short timeframe allotted to the participants led to lively discussions.

During the game, participants encountered the same complexities they face in their own institutions. The many dilemmas require constant balancing. Turner provided a conceptual framework that allowed participants to experience the dynamics of working toward a balanced Portfolio based on the principles of polarity management. They then discussed with Marc Otto (Chair of the Executive Board at NHL Stenden) how to deal with this in practice and what does and does not work in that context.

What can Turner’s Profolio do for you?

If the serious game developed with De Boom University of Applied Sciences made one thing clear, it’s that there is no quick fix. Dialogue among all stakeholders is crucial. Objectively analyzing the issue will make this dialogue more efficient and effective. On behalf of Turner, Jasper and Tjalle developed a tool that can help with decision-making: Profolio. Profolio combines data from more than 20 public sources and organizes it so that, at a glance, it’s clear how well programs are performing and how relevant they are to society, students, and the job market. The tool generates a forecast based on comparable programs in the region and throughout the Netherlands. Jasper: “This provides an objective, clear foundation for a productive discussion, enabling us to help make the right choices. Which programs deserve attention? Which ones can undergo Continuous Development? And which ones are less future-proof? With Profolio, you gain insight into your educational portfolio and can work toward making the right choices—quickly, with a solid foundation, and with an eye toward the future.”
The Masterclass participants got to work on their own institutions’ Portfolios and used Profolio to develop strategic perspectives. This once again yielded interesting topics for discussion, which above all demonstrated that the collected data serves as a good starting point for the discussion about the educational portfolio. “Everyone is facing the same issue,” said one of the participants. “Maybe the context is slightly different, maybe the urgency isn’t the same everywhere, but we’re all going through the same thing.”

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“We’ve been through this process ourselves before. So we know that portfolio management is a great way to get a clear picture of where you stand. But it’s just as important to come together and meet people who are also interested in this topic. It’s really nice to hear how they think about their portfolios. I’m used to taking a broad view, so I’m always interested in how others deal with these issues, especially when people are as open as they are today.”
Patrick Bemelmans, director of the Academy for Communication and Creative Business at NHL Stenden

“This issue is relevant everywhere, for everyone. The Profolio tool can certainly help us make decisions, too.” “I was glad to have the chance to meet people here from across the country who are dealing with the same issues. I also find the presence of colleagues from vocational education valuable; it’s interesting to hear how they view certain things. Thinking things through together always makes it easier.”

Antoine Kunst, Director of Operations at HZ University of Applied Sciences

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Portfolio ManagementEducation institutions face major challenges: declining enrollment, budget cuts, and a changing job market. Professional portfolio management helps vocational schools, colleges, and universities ensure their educational portfolio remains relevant and organize a future-proof education system.

Optimize Your Educational Portfolio

Turner offers a variety of options to provide targeted support to institutions in professional portfolio management, tailored to their specific needs and challenges.

• Profolio: An information product that provides a comprehensive overview of the performance and relevance of the educational portfolio. Based on >, it draws on 25 sources and benchmarks from comparable programs. This provides an objective starting point for a professional portfolio process.
• Professionalizing Portfolio Management: Implementing a sustainable process for portfolio development based on collaborative design, demonstration, collaboration, and self-direction.
• Strategic Portfolio Dialogue: Guiding decision-makers in setting priorities for the ongoing development of the education portfolio, all in one day.
• Prioritization of Strategic Options: Analysis of Portfolio opportunities and challenges—such as market contraction and partnerships—based on quantitative and qualitative insights. Includes clear options for interventions.