{"id":54966,"date":"2026-08-24T11:53:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turner.nl\/uncategorized\/the-story-of-has-university-of-applied-sciences-and-turner\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T11:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T09:53:48","slug":"the-story-of-has-university-of-applied-sciences-and-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turner.nl\/en\/education\/the-story-of-has-university-of-applied-sciences-and-turner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of HAS University of Applied Sciences and Turner"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Story Behind the Achievement<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Story of Turner and
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This year, we can call ourselves the No. 1 strategy consulting firm and have the highest client satisfaction rating of all consulting firms. What lies behind this achievement\u2014both ours and that of our clients? In the series \u201cThe Story Behind the Achievement,\u201d we sit down with Liz Chermin, (acting) chair of the board of directors at HAS University of Applied Sciences. Educational institutions, too, must continue to engage in learning\u2014that is this top executive\u2019s philosophy. How does Turner help with that? <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Story of HAS University of Applied Sciences<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The story of HAS and Turner begins shortly after Liz Chermin joined the institution to focus on educational quality and educational innovation. \u201cI\u2019ve been in school my whole life, so I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have a lot to learn,\u201d Liz jokes. \u201cI previously worked at Avans University of Applied Sciences, where I implemented all kinds of changes: from setting up entirely new degree programs, such as the Bachelor\u2019s in Law and the Bachelor\u2019s in Integrated Security, to the transition to competency-based education. In 2016, I started at HAS<\/a>: a somewhat smaller university of applied sciences with a very focused and socially relevant curriculum. Everything that\u2019s in the news right now\u2014climate change, food production, the living environment\u2014is reflected in our programs.\u201d <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Working Together to Address Social Issues<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With programs such as environmental science, international food & agribusiness, food innovation, and healthy living, that certainly sounds socially relevant. But as a smaller institution, how do you stay connected to society? How does society know what you have to offer as a college? <\/p>

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In 2017, HAS developed a new vision for education: \u201cIt\u2019s very important to truly develop such a new vision together: we need each other to solve problems. That\u2019s true within HAS, but also in society. It\u2019s also the foundation of our educational vision. In education and research, we want to collaborate on societal issues\u2014with the professional field and with other disciplines. To make that collaboration possible, we need to make education flexible and adaptive, so that students can also take the lead themselves.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Flexible and adaptive education sounds great, but what does it actually mean in practice? Liz explains: \u201cFlexible education means that students can choose for themselves how they acquire certain competencies. Will you do an internship first and then take classes? Will you start working as a junior researcher in our research groups? Will you start your own business? Students learn in different ways, and we want to accommodate that.\u201d <\/p>

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Still, that doesn\u2019t mean everything is handed to students on a silver platter, Liz believes: \u201cOrganized discomfort is also part of the experience. Education also has a social function: it helps you get to know yourself and determine how you relate to certain social issues. That calls for teachers to take on a more coaching-oriented role, focused on that personal development.\u201d<\/p>

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So what does adaptive education entail? \u201cAs an institution, we want to be able to adapt quickly: we conduct a lot of research, and we want to apply that new knowledge to Education more quickly. This allows us to continuously meet the needs of society.\u201d <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Liz Chermin, (Acting) Chair of the Board of Trustees at HAS University of Applied Sciences<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Difficult to put into concrete terms<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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That\u2019s a clear explanation. And how exactly does Turner fit into the picture? Liz explains: \u201cThree years ago, we had a great new vision that everyone was enthusiastic about. I think it\u2019s important to practice what you preach. So if we want to give students control over their own learning, then as the Board of Trustees, we also have to give faculty and staff the freedom to shape flexible and adaptive education on their own. But because we didn\u2019t make this concrete enough, it also led to a lot of discussions. Were we on the right track? Or were we still a long way off?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Turner\u2019s Martijn Babeliowsky<\/a> and his team worked with stakeholders to translate the educational vision into a more concrete goal and then turned that into a dashboard for faculty and staff. How do they rate their program or cluster on a number of specific aspects? Liz: \u201cWith Turner\u2019s guidance, we were able to discuss our progress so far with one another. How far have we come? What\u2019s already going well? What\u2019s not quite there yet? What still needs to be done? You can really see the learning process reflected in the results: the very clusters that impressed us rated themselves lower. Because they were already doing so well, they knew where there was room for improvement\u2014they were \u2018consciously incompetent.\u2019 Others, on the other hand, were still in the \u2018unconsciously incompetent\u2019 stage, haha.\u201d <\/p>

So it\u2019s truly a learning organization. The process of creating the dashboard itself was also very valuable, Liz emphasizes: \u201cWe were forced to translate that entire vision into concrete outcomes and metrics for the dashboard. That worked out really well. It helped us get moving quickly.\u201d <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cPlug-and-play\u201d<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Putting students and faculty in charge\u2014what does that actually mean for an institution itself? Letting go of everything? Or do some changes still need to be made at the central level? Liz: \u201cThe funny thing is, the more flexibility you want, the more central frameworks you need. Students need to be able to switch between degree programs, so your entire curriculum has to become \u2018plug-and-play.\u2019 To that end, we\u2019ve now formulated design principles so that everyone knows what programs in education must meet. We\u2019ve also set up a new Education & Quality department\u2014and it\u2019s being used a lot. That\u2019s a good sign.\u201d <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Coronavirus is accelerating<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the implementation of the educational vision? \u201cWe had already envisioned a combination of in-person and online learning in the vision. But we were now forced to do things differently very quickly. We also noticed a difference: the clusters with strong educational leadership seemed to cope better with the new situation. So, rather than being slowed down, we\u2019ve actually accelerated. Moreover, in the new vision, we prepare our students for a world filled with uncertainty. Well, it doesn\u2019t get any more uncertain than this, does it?\u201d <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cTurning a great vision into reality and working together to put it into practice. That\u2019s what Strategy Execution is all about.\u201d<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u2013 Martijn Babeliowsky, education management consultant and partner at Turner\u200b<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Typical Strategy = Execution<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Martijn Babeliowsky responds to Liz: \u201cIt\u2019s really great to hear how Liz experienced our collaboration. And it\u2019s wonderful that we\u2019re truly adding value for HAS. Turning a great vision into something concrete and working together to put it into practice\u2014that\u2019s what Strategy Execution is all about.\u201d That\u2019s exactly right. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Turner is number 1 on the MT1000 list. What\u2019s the story behind this impressive achievement? We\u2019d love to tell you more.
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Want to know more? <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Profiel