The Honours Conference 2025: Students Facilitate the Future
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Read more about the highlights from the conference
Explore key takeaways, inspiring talks, student initiatives, and collaborative ideas that shaped the Honours Conference 2025.
In collaboration with The European Honours-Council, INTED is hosted The Honours Conference 2025: Students Facilitate the Future, at University of Oslo, Norway.
Students’ potential and agency
With a complex world and problems that demand new solutions, higher education also needs to foster thinking citizens that are trained to work in uncertainty. By focusing on students’ potential, education can develop students problem-solving skills and knowledge on how they themselves can hold the potential for finding solutions in the future.
In Honours-programs and Interdisciplinary education student potential and complex problem solving skills is in focus. In this conference we will present ideas and methods for how higher education Honours-programs and Interdisciplinary education focus on student potential and developing complex problemssolving skills. The students will have the opportunity to experience and showcase their potential in the conference.
Key-note speakers:
Idar Kreutzer
Director at NHO, and will explain the need for developing minds and mindsets to meet today’s challenges, and how important interdisciplinary skills is for the future workforce.
Michael O'Rourke
Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative at Michigan State University. His research interests encompass interdisciplinary theory, epistemology, and communication and epistemic integration in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research.
Marca Wolfensberger
Professor of Transdisciplinary Collboration in Education at Avans UAS, and chair of the European Honours Council (ECH). Marca has been involved in various trans- and interdisciplinary honours education modules at the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University. She co-wrote more then 150 articles about higher education. Her passion for education contributed to her becoming one of the pioneer founders of honours education in Europe
Machiel Keestra
Central Diversity Officer at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and past-president of the international Association for Interdisciplinary Studies. He has worked on embedding and developing honours education at the University of Amsterdam, both as philosopher and also as coordinator of its Honours platform in the period 2005-2010.
Who is the conference for:
1. Honours Students: Share your experiences and the impact of honours programs on tackling complex issues.
2. Academics, Teachers and Scholars: Explore effective teaching practices that support student growth.
3. University Representatives: Discuss strategies for improving honours education through collaboration.
Join us for engaging discussions and collaboration. We look forward to your participation in shaping the future of honours education in Europe!
Program
Friday 31.10.25
On Friday the conference will present what is needed in today’s society and give a status for honours- and interdisciplinary education in 2025.
Friday will be held at the University of Oslo, Kristine Bonnevies hus, in the Lobby and Auditorium 3.
Register to join us on Friday, October 31.
Saturday 01.11.25
On Saturday, the conference offers experiences that showcase how education can harness students' potential through workshops, presentations, and discussions.
The program for Saturday is divided into two distinct tracks:
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Student Track: All students attending the conference will participate in this track, engaging in collaborative workshop activities designed to enhance their learning experience and develop a student community.
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Academic Track: All academic participants will join the academic track, which is further divided into two parallel sessions: one focusing on workshops and the other featuring presentations and discussions based on the posters from Friday.
The event on Saturday will be held at Voksen?sen Hotel.
Throughout the conference, poster sessions and presentations will foster shared knowledge and inspiration. The venue will create a space for meaningful conversations about education, emphasizing student agency and its role in shaping dynamic learning experiences.
Participants
Together with the students, representatives from the UiO and the University sector, policymakers, stakeholder, academics and teachers will present and be invited as participants to join in on the conference discussion.
Where
On Friday the conference will start on University of Oslo campus, before participants will be bussed to Voksen?sen Hotel in Oslo for an overnight stay and the rest of the conference.
Contact
Department of Physics
University of Oslo
P.O. Box 1048
Blindern 0316 OSLO