‘Happy, honored and grateful by the fact that the energy, time and devotion to teaching have been recognized by those who are the centre of my educational activities, my students’.

This is Vassilis' first reaction after receiving the title of Lecturer of the Year. During his workshops to the Dutch master students, he often switches between Dutch and English, to the hilarity of the students. But this has also an advantage, Vassilis says. ‘Het "wisselen tussen de talen" stimulates the students who remain alert. The students also help me to improve my Dutch. This results in a mutual teaching experience and the distance between the students and myself becomes smaller.’

This approachability and the contact with students are what typifies Vassilis. ‘Most of my students say that I am a very enthusiastic person and passionate for my subject. I believe that I am an approachable teacher who in a friendly manner encourages the students to raise questions, within and outside the classroom. I care about my students’ development and I make time available for them.’

Magic

That Vassilis loves teaching and wants to get the most out of it is evident. When he teaches, he always tries to think what the students need and how they will approach an issue. Students say he has the 'magic' to make difficult concepts understandable; he gives examples, or changes the facts of the question to make it more difficult or easier. And all of this while Vassilis moves from the one corner of the room to the other, from the podium to a student desk or by just moving his hands like a conductor. Vassilis: ‘Every time I give a lecture or a presentation, I feel like standing on a podium in front of an audience who attends a concert. Instead of singing, I teach.’

‘When I see my students, I think of myself 8 years ago when I moved to the Netherlands from Greece. I had to cope with a new situation in my life, which was not always very easy, at least in the beginning. Each time I have a new group of students from all over the world, I see this younger Vassilis who was struggling to understand some difficult concepts and the older – and hopefully – wiser Vassilis is here to help the students overcome these challenges.'

Innovative teaching methods

Vassilis also likes exploring innovative teaching methods. For example, for the International Tax Law Moot Court course of this year (part of the Amsterdam Law Practice), he introduced video trainings to the students: he records the pleadings of the students who subsequently receive oral and written feedback. At the same time, the students can watch their pleading and evaluate how they perform – ‘a bit confronting but a very good teaching experience for them and a great tool for exam preparation’.

Always looking further than the exams

What are the tricky things about teaching, we ask Vassilis. ‘It is true that some students want to learn how to solve exam questions. They want to pass their exams and graduate. There is nothing wrong with this – even when I was a student, there were courses for which I wanted to just pass.

My opinion here is that a teacher can even under these circumstances inspire and motivate the students and help them see further than the course exam. For instance, the ethical aspect of tax law is something that the students need to be aware of. What is the fine line between acceptable and not acceptable tax planning? Or under which circumstances the tax authorities discriminate the taxpayers in an unethical manner? To this end, we have included in the Advanced master International Tax Law three seminars on fiscal ethics in order for the students to become aware of the societal discussions around this important subject. 

Goose bumps

Some situations during his lectures always stay with him, they even give him goose bumps. ‘It was one of my first lectures to the current class of the advanced master International Tax Law, a class of 25 international students. This lecture was having the type of a Technical Meeting, an innovative form of a lecture during which the teacher delivers a small lecture and afterwards supervises the students’ discussions. In essence, it is the students who deliver the lecture.

I was teaching on inheritance taxes. I wanted to include research and teaching in a class but inheritance taxes are not that popular to students.  So, I had to think of a way to make this topic interesting for the students, who just started their studies. I decided to talk about the reasons why the states may seek to levy inheritance taxes. I devided the group into two, those in favor and those against inheritance taxes and we had a small debate. After one hour of debating, the students were able to do their class on their own and reply to the arguments of the other group., I cannot hide you that I was having goosebumps that moment. It was a moment that I realized that the students understand the subject, can make judgments and could even challenge my research findings!’