The professor awards are organised by RSM Student Representation (SR) annually. Students from RSM’s BSc International Business Administration and BSc Bedrijfskunde voted for exceptional professors each trimester. Afterwards, all the nominated professors competed in the final voting, which was again done by the students. The online award event included video speeches by the winning professors, Dean Ansgar Richter, SR Board members Camille Fossaert, next year's SR Board member Dimitri Hagiarian and Executive Director BSc Programmes Adri Meijdam. It was organised by the SR’s Professor Awards Committee; Teresa Kulej, Julia Mancewizc, Jessica Moscrip, and Alexander Van Rompuy.
The best professor of the year awards went to Florian Madertoner (IBA 1, BA 2, IBA 2), Dr Christoph Lembregts (BA1), Prof. Erik Roelofsen (BA 3 and a tie in IBA 3), and Dr Helen Gubby (tie in IBA 3). This was the 11th professor of the year award for Dr Gubby, who taught the business law course. It will also be her last, as Dr Gubby will be switching to teaching in the MSc programme.
The awards for professors who best adapted to the coronacrisis were for Prof. Erik Roelofsen (IBA 3, BA 3), Florian Madertoner (IBA 1), Dasha Kolesnyk (IBA 2), Dr Alex Genevsky (IBA 2), Dr Pieter Van den Berg (BA 1), and Christoph Lembregts (BA 2). And for the best supporting staff award, the students voted for RSM’s team of student advisers.
Hardcore, ambitious and diligent
“My courses are very student-centric and -demand, instead of supply-driven. The fact that students seem to like my courses which are all heavily quantitative, shows what kind of students we have: hardcore, ambitious and diligent. Teaching them is a privilege, not just a job,” says Florian Madertoner, who won awards for his macro course IBA 1, and corporate finance courses in BA 2 and IBA 2, and the ‘best corona response award’.
RSM’s Dean Ansgar Richter says RSM is committed to developing the responsible business leader of tomorrow. “We believe that business and management schools play a key role in shaping the mindsets and skills of future leaders, and can be powerful drivers of corporate sustainability.” To achieve this, RSM developed a high-quality, research-driven, and transformational curriculum. “Our objective is to equip our students and young graduates to drive sustainable change in a complex world. I’m truly happy to see that the students recognise this,” he said.
Adri Meijdam reminded the audience in his video speech that he does not expect the School to go back to “business as usual” like in pre-Corona times, but that we will head to teaching delivery 2.0 – meaning that teaching will be done in a blended online and classroom format.
Effective collaboration and innovation
The dean also recognised that students had to adapt majorly. “You had to embrace this big and unexpected change as well, and I know this has not always been easy at times. I applaud your resilience, the desire to make the most of the current situation.” Prof. Richter continued: “Effective collaboration, like this type of award event, brings us together to the benefit of teachers, students and the overall study experience. Together, we will continue to embrace change, having learned innovative ways of teaching and learning for the future – and thus be a better us.”
