Lies Korevaar voted Professor of the year

Lies Korevaar voted Professor of the Year regarding Student Well-being
Lies Korevaar, Professor of Rehabilitation at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, has been  voted Professor of the Year 2019 by the Dutch National Students’ Association (DNSA) and ScienceGuide . Professor Korevaar has been a researcher for 20 years and is a passionate proponent of students’ well-being. In the final round he had to compete with Aminata Caïro, Professor of Inclusive Education at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and Janine Stubbe, Professor of Performing Arts Medicine at Codarts.

Professor Lies Korevaar
‘Nothing about them, without them…’ is a sentence frequently heard from Lies Korevaar, Professor of Rehabilitation at Hanze UAS’s School of Social Studies. This sentiment perfectly characterises a man who tirelessly works with students with mental health problems to help resolve any issues that they may have. Lies Korevaar graduated from the University of Amsterdam in the field of psychology. He obtained his PhD from the University of Groningen and was appointed Professor of Rehabilitation at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen in 2003.

Rob Verhofstad, Executive Board member: ‘We are very proud that Lies has been voted Professor of the Year. During his years in academia, he has developed countless tools and courses to support students. Everything that he has developed is immediately applicable in practice and has made a substantial contribution to society.’

Michele Garnier, Dean of the School of Social Studies: ‘The research and innovation centre of Lies plays a central and essential role in our core function: to educate and train social professionals and applied psychologists. Thanks to Lies, a substantial number of students are able to remain their student role despite the fact that they have mental health problems.’

Student well-being
Nearly 40,000 students in the Netherlands have mental health problems Over half of these students say that it seriously hinders their studies, forcing them to work longer hours for lower grades and fewer credits. Offering all of these students a degree programme that suits their diverse needs is a mammoth task.

The Centre for Rehabilitation at the Hanze university of applied sciences plays a vital role in tackling this issue: developing new knowledge, acquiring external knowledge and transferring it into educational programmes. The importance of the issue is so great that the Dutch National Students’ Association (DNSA) and the ScienceGuide journal made Student Well-being the central theme of the Professor of the Year Award.

Examples
The following are just a few examples of why Lies has been voted Professor of the Year:

•           Study choice – Many students with mental health problems find it difficult to select a suitable degree programme. Korevaar’ s Centre for Rehabilitation offers useful tools such as courses to support students with mental health problems in making a well informed decision about their further education? In the end, 62% of the students who take this course go on to make a successful and well-considered study choice.

•           To tell or not to tell – A frequent dilemma that young people with mental health problems encounter is whether or not to tell others about these problems at school, mental health and educational professionals often do not know how to support students facing this dilemma. For this purpose, the Centre for Rehabilitation  developed the disclosure instrument entitled ‘To tell or not to tell’.

•           Student Peer Support – Many students think that they are the only ones having mental health problems influencing their study. The Centre for Rehabilitation has offered a Peer Support group since 2007, in which students support each other by sharing experiences, exchanging tips regarding studying with mental health problems and lending others an ear.