Coaches & Community Experts

This is a list of our coaches and experts for the Community of Learning - Internationalisation, sorted by area of expertise.

Dear Colleagues, The Centre of International Affairs – CoIA – acts as a centre of expertise in the area of internationalisation. Together with the Internationalisation knowledge centre, CoIA links study programmes to the relevant expertise, knowledge and research, provides policy advice and facilitates the quality assessment of internationalisation. In parallel, CoIA provides day-to-day administration of international mobility, projects, recruitment, admissions and travel. In your implementation of internationalisation, you can benefit from support and guidance of RUAS Internationalisation coaches and of the specialized COIL / Virtual Exchange Expert. You will find below their professional profiles and their specific areas of expertise. In addition to our specialized coaches, you may also benefit from the experience and good practices capitalised by the study programmes having participated in the HUB in the period 2018-2020. Below, you will find the areas of expertise together with the contact details of RUAS Internationalisation Coaches and RUAS Experts from the HUB Community of Learning 2018-2020. If you need support in these areas, feel free to contact them. The HUB Steering Group

RUAS Internationalisation Coaches - professional profiles

Thomas Blanc de la Carrere, MA

Thomas works at RUAS as Quality Advisor Internationalisation. His responsibilities include advisory to study programmes to allow informed choices regarding: vision on internationalisation, quality of international partners, benchmarking, internationalisation aspects of accreditation, choice and implementation of internationalisation activities. Until 2015 he was a staff member at the ECA Secretariat and Project Officer Internationalisation in the international policy department of NVAO. In this role he has been involved in various ECA project activities regarding transnational quality assurance of joint programmes and the assessment of the quality of internationalisation.

Before joining NVAO he worked as institutional European projects coordinator at Pole Universitaire Leonard de Vinci in Paris (France), where he managed projects financed by the European Commission including financial reporting and auditing, launched and managed short intensive programmes. From 2009 to 2012 he also acted as guest lecturer in a number of HEIs primarily in Europe on the following topics: Lobbying in the EU, Digital Culture, Intercultural Communication (focus on Russia). In the period 1996-2000 he accomplished a series of assignments in various institutions including: French ministry of Economics, Finance and Industry and UNESCO.

Jan van der Kolk

Current Position: Jan works as a Senior Advisor Department of Quality Assurance at RUAS for 10 years. His experience in Quality Assurance of Higher Education and Internationalisation has a focus on preparation of accreditations NVAO; institutional quality assurance assessment and limited programme assessments Master, Bachelor and Associate degrees at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. At program level he is providing International benchmarking and curriculum development. Jan has experience in external reviews of Quality Assurance Agencies, where RUAS was Partner in the European project in Georgia and Armenia to strengthen the National Accreditation Agencies during 2012 – 2014. The project was Promoting Internationalization and Comparability of Quality Assurance in Higher Education (PICQA).

Other international expertise:

  • Projectdirector for a researchteam United Nations Development Program defining a roadmap providing a framework on Education and training for Sustainable development in Ethiopia.
  • Projectdirector; Implementing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and facilitating management of national and provincial government education in SA.
  • Supporting Management of TVET-Colleges in Subsahara like Zambia, Tanzania and SouthAfrica, with the implementation of competency based education.

Ross Hudson, MA, PhD Candidate

Senior level professional, with over 13 years of experience leading teams to deliver complex research and policy implementation projects in the international higher education policy sector, whilst working in a number of countries. Advanced university degree (MA) and current Doctorate of Business Administration candidate, who has published widely in the field of international education. Motivated, conscientious and entrepreneurial professional, with proven management, analytical, client engagement and communication skills, who operates with humility, integrity and pride

Leo Klienbannink MBA

Leo has worked at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences or actually its predecessor HES Rotterdam since 1990. In particular for the International School of Economics Rotterdam (ISER). Since the introduction (and the merger with HRO) of the International Business & Management Studies programme he worked as lecturer, senior and principal lecturer for this programme until 2007 when he was appointed course director IBMS. Until January 2015 he fulfilled this position with great enthusiasm and inspiration.

Since 2015 he was associate lector within Rotterdam Business School and CoIA, in particular regarding internationalisation. As of 2017 he joined the Knowledge Center Business Innovation as lector (applied research professor) internationalisation to enhance internationalisation throughout HR/HRBS and to facilitate applied research for researchers regarding international business. With CcS and CoIA the professorship worked closely together in establishing an inspirational platform internationalisation which culminated into a community of practice internationalisation as well as a triangle internationalisation for HR.

Enny Kraaijveld, MA

Enny has worked at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2008. She started as a Course Director and worked for a number of bachelor and foundation programs at RUAS. Since 2016, since the start of the Centre of International Affairs, she is, as manager of the Centre, responsible for the facilitation of the development of internationalisation in RUAS.

CoIA offers expertise in the field of internationalisation to study programmes, is involved and leading in knowledge development and research, provides policy advice and facilitates the quality assessment of internationalisation. CoIA provides the administration of international mobility, projects, recruitment of international students, admissions, communication and travel. Since 2018 Enny is Project leader of the HUB Internationalisation.

Jessica Shinnick, MSW

Jessica has worked at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2005. She began her work as a lecturer and coach for the Masters programs in the business school, and since 2016 has been working for the Centre of International Affairs as an internationalisation advisor and trainer. Her current responsibilities include supporting study programs in:

  • defining and operationalising internationalisation within their programs
  • developing curriculum to include the teaching and assessment of intercultural competencies
  • professionalizing lecturers and staff in relation to intercultural sensitivity/competencies and creating and working in the international classroom
  • providing workshops for students on communicating across cultures

In addition, she has contributed to several research projects since 2015, all related to the topic of intercultural competencies; the most recent one evaluated the impact of a re-designed study career coaching course on the development of bachelor students’ intercultural competencies.