Mixup (mbo)

The public debate is one of the most important elements of a healthy democracy. But teachers across Europe find it challenging to incorporate civic education in class. In particular, they indicate it can be difficult to create a safe environment for discussions on societal themes with diverging student perspectives.

That is why, in a cooperation with multiple partners and funded by the European Commission, we developed MixUp, a new platform for dialogue between European students on important topics. MixUp is an adaption of Civinc’s chat-application designed for use amongst vocational students from various European countries. We organize 4 or 5 MixUp sessions each year around a relevant theme & date (such as intl Education day or intl Peace day). Each session many thousands of chat conversations take place between students in different countries. A proper MixUp!

It’s the reason why MixUp has won the European Innovative Teaching Award 2025. Norbert Ruepert, Coordinator Internationalisation at ROC Midden-Nederland: “Mixup shows that you can disagree, and still remain connected. That is the core of living together in a democracy. On top of that, it helps to address misinformation”.

Researcher Manja Coopmans (Verwey-Jonker) suggests that “many people think that the differences are increasing. But during MixUp, young people actually discover that they have a lot in common and that hearing different perspectives broadens their perspectives.”

Do you work in Dutch mbo and do you want your students to take part in a Mixup session? Check out letsmixup.com, identify a suitable session, and sign up. It’s free!