by Annemieke Klijn

Wynand Wijnen was one of the pioneers of State University Limburg and also the founder of its problem-based education methodology. In his view, education was not so much a form of knowledge transfer from teacher to student, but a mode of acquiring knowledge by students on their own. Wijnen’s influence on education goes way beyond Maastricht; also nationally and internationally he has played a role in the field of assessment and testing, problem-based learning, the study-centre approach (studiehuis), quality control, and the significance of a study’s feasibility from the angle of the student (studeerbaarheid).

Wijnen was born in 1934 and grew up in a family of 14 children in Hegelsom, a small village in the North of Limburg. It was common for the eldest son of a large Catholic family to embark on a study for priest, but at age 24 he shifted course and became a student of psychology in Nijmegen. As of 1964, after completing his study, he worked at the State University Groningen, first on the academic staff of Psychology, and later, as of 1967, as head of the Centre for Research of Academic Education, which he also founded. In 1971 he earned his PhD by writing a dissertation (entitled Onder of boven de maat), in which he argued against ‘absolute standardizing’ and advocated ‘relative standardizing’. The latter became known as the ‘Wijnen method’.

He focused his educational interests on medical training, which in the 1960s was hotly debated. Major questions were: how should the university deal with the large numbers of students, especially in medicine, and how could medical training be made to link up with professional practice more effectively? As of 1970 Wijnen became involved in plans to set up an eight medical faculty in Maastricht through Harmen Tiddens (1923-2002), originally a professor of paediatrics at the State University Utrecht who was ten years his senior and advocated the renewal of the medical curriculum.

In 1974, Wijnen and Tiddens argued for moving up the start of the eighth medical faculty, in advance of the official opening in January 1976. Thus they wanted to realize a point of no return. In the early 1970s the national government began to doubt the need for an eighth medical faculty in the country. Its legitimization was now found in the educational experiment. Inspired by the example of in particular McMaster University in Hamilton (Canada), Wijnen en Tiddens introduced problem-based learning, which would set the new faculty apart from other medical faculties. The emphasis would be on attitude-development, problem-orientation, self-motivation and progress assessment, as well as on cooperation with regional healthcare. In 1973 Wijnen became head of the ‘education development office’, while in 1977 he was appointed professor in development and research of higher education. Self-motivation and cooperation came first in Maastricht. It was a novelty that students were offered classes thematically in the form of practical problems which they had to solve in small groups. Instead of professors, ‘tutors’ had to guide students through the process of study. Wijnen made an original contribution to problem-based learning by instituting the ‘progress test’: a random sample of questions derived from the program’s final qualifications. This test, to be made four times each year by all students, would provide insight into the (individual) knowledge level of the student(s). Wijnen played a crucial role in the acceptance and dissemination of this educational renewal. He presented his vision with persuasion. If in the first years Maastricht was looked at sceptically, after some time people’s curiosity for and acceptance of problem-based learning grew stronger, at both the national and the international level.

From 1977 to 1980, Wijnen served as founding dean of the Faculty of General Sciences in order to set up a curriculum in social medicine. After Tiddens, the first rector of the State University Limburg, left, Wijnen was rector from early 1979 to early 1982. This episode was hardly gratifying to him. Being an inspired, idealist educationalist, he was no administrator. Afterward he shifted his gaze outward. He was on various (ministerial) commissions and came to be known as ‘national education innovator’, in both secondary and higher education. In 1995, Maastricht University launched the ‘Wynand Wijnen Education Award’ for a staff member who makes an exceptional contribution to this university’s teaching effort. Four years later her retired. Until his death in 2002 he remained involved in the innovation of education and was active in various organizations, including Fools University Limburg.

See: Wynand Wijnen looks back (in 2005) to the beginnings of social medicine.