International Postgraduate Veterinary Education Symposium 2027

Cees van der Vleuten PhD has been appointed at Maastricht University since 1982. 

He considers his mission to help initiating educational innovations in medical education while at the same time connecting these to educational research. In 1996 he was appointed as a Professor of Education at the Faculty of Medicine from University of Maastricht and as chair of the Department of Educational Development and Research (until 2015). From 2005 to 2020 he was the Director of the School of Health Professions Education (SHE), responsible for hundreds of master and PhD students in the field. The assessment of professional competence has his special attention with a particular focus on assessment as an educational design problem. 

His work is frequently cited in literature. He has fulfilled several visiting professorships around the world, and he has been awarded with many recognitions and prizes. Among others he received the Karolinska prize for research in medical education (2012) and a Royal Dutch Distinction for the societal impact of his work (2010). He retired in 2023, but remains active in the field as a consultant and advisor.

Professor van der Vleuten is the brainchild of programmatic assessment, now implemented across institutions worldwide. His presentation “Programmatic assessment as a logical next step in competency-based education” will discuss this topic.

Professor Meredith Young is a professor at the Institute of Health Sciences Education at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She has a PhD in cognitive psychology from McMaster University, and her research interests lie in clinical reasoning and decision-making in health professions education, and assessment validity. She was awarded the Karolinska prize for research in medical education.

Her presentation “What do we mean when we say clinical reasoning?” will explore this concept in detail. Clinical reasoning is considered to be at the core of what it means to be a health care professional, and is the focus of many of our teaching, assessment, and research efforts. However, the literature on clinical reasoning is notoriously fragmented, full of different theories, with little guidance on what might be considered best practices. Following a very large, very long, in-depth analysis of clinical reasoning literature across the health professions, this presentation and accompanying discussion will focus on deliberately engaging with what we think clinical reasoning is, what good reasoning might look like, and how we can best support its development. 

Professor Fedde Scheele has been Dean of the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA) since 2024, a joint faculty of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam, ranked third worldwide for dentistry in the QS rankings. Previously, he worked as a gynaecologist and served as Dean of Education and Research at OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam.

He is a nationally recognised leader in health systems innovation and health professions education, with an extensive international network. He has held several influential leadership positions, including membership of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch health insurer Menzis, where he focused on health systems transformation. He has chaired the Netherlands Association for Medical Education, the Dutch national body responsible for postgraduate medical training regulations, and the board overseeing public funding for postgraduate medical education. He currently chairs Care for Everybody, an NGO advocating for women's health at the European level.

Throughout his career, he has led more than ten nationally funded health professions education projects and coordinated the EU-funded development of the European Training Requirements for Gynaecology and Obstetrics. He has successfully supervised more than 35 PhD candidates.

Over time, his academic interests have shifted from biomedical research towards the societal accountability of health professions education, curriculum innovation, and change management. A central theme in this journey has been his involvement in the development, implementation, and critical appraisal of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) since 2003.

His particular expertise lies in designing innovative, socially responsive curricula and critically examining the educational concepts that underpin them. He combines extensive experience in educational leadership and innovation with a scholarly and reflective approach to educational change.

Dr Hecker is a Professor of Health Professions Education in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine with a joint appointment in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is the inaugural Chief Assessment Officer for the International Council for Veterinary Assessment which oversees the administration of the North American Veterinary Licensure Examination. 

Dr Hecker studies performance in health professions education focusing in three areas: 

1. Selection of applicants
2. Assessment of student/trainee competency development across the health care continuum
3. The application of neuroimaging methods (functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] and electroencephalography [EEG]) to assess learning, reasoning and decision making

He has over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts, 8 book chapters, 112 peer reviewed oral and poster conference abstracts, and 33 invited presentations. He has supervised 47 trainees, spanning undergraduate students to Post-Doctoral Fellows. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in measurement and assessment in health professions education, curricula design and delivery, teaching methods in medical education, and research design and statistics in medical education.  

Dr Hecker will present “"Why the Brain: Can Cognitive Neuroscience inform Learning/Competence in Veterinary Medicine?". In this talk, Dr Hecker shares how cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging are helping researchers better understand learning, expertise development, and clinical decision-making in health professions education. Through examples from anatomy, pathology, and diagnostic training, he discusses how neural measures can complement traditional educational assessments and provide new insights into learning processes. He will also discuss the opportunities and challenges of applying these emerging technologies to improve educational practice and learner outcomes.

The nearest stations are Westminster and St James’s Park. Both Westminster (Exit 6) on the District, Circle and Jubilee lines, and St James's Park on the District and Circle lines, are just 5 minutes walk away. For more information, visit the Transport for London website.

Numerous bus routes pass within a 1–2-minute walk of One Great George Street. Bus routes stopping near Parliament Square include: 3, 11, 12, 24, 53, 87, 88, 148, 159, 211 and 453. For further information visit the Transport for London website.

The nearest car parks provided by Q-Park are located in Abingdon Street and on the south side of Trafalgar Square. Limited meter parking is also available in and around adjacent streets.

The nearest Blue Badge disabled parking bay is located on Matthew Parker Street (drive down Storey's Gate to the west of the venue and take the second right). Alternatively, a little further away, there are bays on Old Queen Street and Queen Anne's Gate. These Blue Badge bays offer free parking for up to 4 hours between 08.30 and 18.30 Mon-Fri and unlimited parking at any other time. Please see Westminster Council's website for further information.