Floris van Berckel Smit is a PhD Candidate at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). He holds an MSc degree in Public Governance (Utrecht University, 2017) and an MA degree in Political History (VU, 2018). Floris integrates social science insights into historical research. His research focuses on:
- the history and governance of higher education;
- the rise and impact of (new public) management;
- organizational change;
- applied history and the learning histories method;
- oral history.
His research is embedded in the research group of Political History of the VU and the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent at Ghent University. He was a visiting scholar at Ghent University (2019-2020). Floris has contributed to various projects involving collaboration with historians, political scientists, educational scientists, public administration scholars, as well as policymakers and administrators. In 2020, he received an NWO-grant to conduct research on the rise of New Public Management in Dutch and Flemish university governance (for more information about the project, see: https://universitygovernance.nl/).
His work on the varieties of New Public Management at the organizational level was recognized with the European Higher Education Society Outstanding Paper Award 2023.
