Two TU/e Professors Win Top Teaching Awards With Unconventional Methods
Eindhoven, Wednesday, 29 April 2026.
Eindhoven University of Technology honored Loe Schlicher and Robert van Dongen as its best teachers for 2025, each receiving €15,000 prizes. Schlicher plans to spend his award on premium Japanese chalk costing €1 per piece, emphasizing his preference for blackboard teaching over digital presentations. Van Dongen focuses on experiential learning, requiring students to walk through cities and photograph urban environments. Both educators prioritize personal connections with students and hands-on learning approaches that challenge traditional academic methods.
Award Winners Embrace Student-Centered Philosophy
The 2025 MomenTUm ceremony recognized two educators whose teaching philosophies center on student empowerment rather than traditional lecturing methods [1]. Loe Schlicher from the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences claimed the Best Bachelor’s Teacher award for his Intermediate Finance and Accounting course, while Robert van Dongen from the Department of the Built Environment earned Best Master’s Teacher recognition [1]. Both recipients received €15,000 prizes to support educational innovation [1]. Schlicher’s victory proved particularly noteworthy as he noted, “The funny thing is: I won this prize for a course that has nothing to do with my research” [1]. The awards ceremony featured Rector Silvia Lenaerts presenting the honors on stage [1].
Unconventional Teaching Tools and Techniques
Schlicher’s first planned purchase with his prize money reveals his commitment to hands-on teaching methods. “The first thing I’m going to do with the prize money is order the Rolls-Royce of chalk from Japan,” he announced, referring to dust-free Japanese chalk costing approximately €1 per piece [1]. His preference for blackboard instruction stems from its dynamic nature: “It’s much more dynamic. If the lesson suddenly takes a different turn, you can adapt on the fly,” Schlicher explained [1]. He believes traditional presentation slides overwhelm students, stating, “If you reveal everything at once on a single slide, students get overwhelmed with too much at the same time” [1]. Beyond chalk purchases, Schlicher plans to produce expert-interview videos for a new homeland security course, featuring different themes such as city surveillance [1].
Experiential Learning Beyond Campus Walls
Van Dongen’s teaching approach emphasizes real-world application through experiential assignments that take students beyond traditional classroom boundaries [1]. His Urban Planning and Transportation courses require students to walk through cities, photograph urban environments, and reflect on their observations [1]. Despite managing courses with up to 300 students, van Dongen attempts to learn every student’s name, acknowledging “that doesn’t always work in a course with three hundred students” [1]. His teaching philosophy extends beyond the university campus, as he aims to “bring education and research out of the university and into society” [1]. This community-focused approach reflects his belief that “science is under pressure because it’s drifting too far from society” and his commitment to making academic knowledge accessible to the broader public [1].
Empowering Independent Problem-Solvers
Both award winners emphasize preparing students for professional independence rather than academic dependence. Schlicher’s teaching philosophy centers on student self-reliance: “The teachers — the all-knowing genies from the lamp — are no longer there to help you in the real world. You have to do it yourself” [1]. He has completely reorganized his courses, creating new lecture notes and workbooks containing more than 50 exercises, alongside group assignments that connect students directly with industry professionals [1]. Van Dongen discovered his teaching impact through experience, reflecting, “My biggest lesson? Realizing I have enough knowledge to offer my students something meaningful” [1]. His approach proved successful even under pressure, as he once prepared five slides in approximately 30 minutes for a new course that “ended up receiving the best evaluations ever” [1]. Both educators maintain personal connections with students through regular mentoring sessions and individualized attention, with Schlicher meeting his master’s advisees “once per quarter” and writing personalized graduation speeches for each graduate [1].