“Every programme should do this. The combination of the teacher perspective and the student perspective provides different and deeper insights than a standard accreditation process.”
Jan-Willem Weenink
Former Programme Director of HCM/ZoMa
In 2022 and 2023, the Healthcare Management (HCM) and Dutch part-time Zorgmanagement (ZoMa) master’s programmes underwent a major revision with clear goals: to give students more space to build expertise in contemporary healthcare topics, pursue their career ambitions, enable study abroad or internship opportunities, and create breathing space with separate resit exam weeks. To measure how these changes have been received by students and teachers and to support further development, Jan-Willem Weenink (former Programme Director of HCM/ZoMa) and Femke Goossens (Policy Advisor Education at ESHPM) asked support from the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI) to evaluate the revised programmes throughout the 2024–2025 academic year.
Consequently, Esther Schut and Romy van Leeuwen from Risbo were involved. They conducted a thorough impact evaluation across different stakeholders, including students, teachers, and coordinators. The findings and recommendations were visualized and presented in a final report, followed by an evaluation and harvest session at the end of 2025.
Key findings & recommendations
The evaluation confirmed that according to students and teachers, the master’s revision goals are successfully implemented. It also highlighted areas for further development, such as student workload, enhancing the student journey, and making the skills development line more explicit. The report provides practical recommendations, connected to these areas for improvement. Femke adds that many things will be used in practice: “The conclusions and recommendations are valuable from a policy perspective, that’s why you conduct an evaluation, even if there are also less positive findings. You need to know the pain points to act on them.”
The report’s format was also well received by Jan-Willem and Femke. “The report is reflective, to the point, focused on the content, and the information is both visually engaging and easy to find,” says Jan-Willem.
From insights to action
The conclusion of a project is just as important as its beginning and the work along the way. Risbo ensures this by conducting a thorough evaluation followed by a harvest session, which is used to define practical next steps. This approach was deemed valuable, according to Jan-Willem: “It’s good that the process concludes with both a project evaluation and a harvest session. You want to be able to actually do something with the outcomes in practice.” ESHPM is planning to use the evaluation to refine the programme’s identity and improve key aspects for accreditation purposes.
Short lines & transparency
What was it like for Jan-Willem and Femke to work with Risbo? “I am very positive,” Jan-Willem says, “short lines of communication, pleasant meetings, lots of input. An independent evaluation in which we worked closely together. It felt like it was ‘for us,’ while remaining objective,” he explains. Additionally, Jan-Willem and Femke appreciated that Risbo has knowledge about the EUR-context, and that they provided transparency during the process.
Romy van Leeuwen reflects on the project: “We were happy to conduct this evaluation for and with Jan-Willem and Femke. It’s great to see that this programme values evaluating what they’ve revised to further develop and strengthen the programme.” In addition, Esther Schut adds: “We were happy to see that ESHPM uses the outcomes of the evaluation for further development of the programme, beneficial for both teachers and the student experience.”
When asked if they would recommend this evaluation, Femke and Jan-Willem state: “Every programme should do this. The combination of the teacher perspective and the student perspective provides different and deeper insights than a standard accreditation process.”
Interested in learning more about impact evaluations by Risbo?
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