BSc Responsibility Skills and Boundary Crossing

During the boundary crossing inspiration meeting in April 2022, a discussion on "How can attention to responsibility and BC competence development in WUR education reinforce each other?" took place.

Renske Dijkstra, project leader of the BSc skills project introduced the session. She explained that BC competence is related to the BSc skills set that need to be part of every Wageningen University BSc programme. Four categories of skills sets are distinguished: skills related to (i) Communication, (ii) Personal development (iii) Research and (iv) Responsibility. It seems obvious that BC competence and skills could (should) be developed together. On the one hand, BC competence touches upon many skills, and thus BC competency can be developed ‘on the wings’ of skills. On the other hand, by explicitly working on BC competence development, students will automatically develop skills.

Bettina Bock, member of the Board of Education explained the background of the attention to responsibility in WUR education. WUR aims to educate students to become academic professionals, who can contribute to sustainable solutions ... in the domain of ‘healthy food and living environment’ all over the world, and who take their social, personal and ethical responsibilities seriously” (WUR Vision on Education). She explained that taking responsibility actually requires looking beyond one’s immediate horizon of understanding, action and position. This, obviously, makes a nice link to the boundary crossing project. She highlighted that the BC theory and the BC learning mechanisms may provide handles to teach and learn responsibility skills.

All attendees endorse the value of the BC theory and the BC learning mechanisms as a way to teach and learn about responsibility and Renske concluded that it would be a wasted opportunity to not combine the implementation of responsibility skills and BC competence development.