Stances & updates

Position statement

Student Council KU Leuven pleads for maximum usage of lecture recordings where possible.


Read the full statement below:

(GA 10/12/2021)

Student participation is one of the most important pillars at KU Leuven to implement good and inclusive policies. It is no surprise that the student community is characterised by great diversity. Together with the faculty consultative bodies, we always try to focus on inclusion. This report, written in the framework of the institutional review (see infra), puts forward how the student representation includes students with different backgrounds, how it makes their voices heard and how student representation contributes to the theme ‘diversity and inclusion’.

Read the full report below:

Institutional review?
To continue to guarantee and improve the quality of education at KU Leuven, a lot of attention is paid to quality assurance. Maybe as a student you have already participated in a COBRA review for your program. But this year, the institutional review will also take place….

What is it?
KU Leuven will be visited this year by the Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie (NVAO). They will look at the quality of the educational policy at KU Leuven, as well as determine where there is room for improvement. In preparation, a critical reflection was made with the help of students, faculty and staff. You can read it here.

How does it work?
On Monday, November 22, an international committee came to KU Leuven for an exploratory site visit, where they formed a portrayal of KU Leuven and its context. This month, in March 2022, they will return with targeted research questions to further assess the quality of KU Leuven. Throughout the process, we as students will also be represented at the various KU Leuven councils and during the site visits.

In conversation with Rector Luc Sels: what will our education look like in the coming weeks?
(GA 26/11/2021)

Last Friday, Rector Luc Sels -as most of you have heard- came to our General Assembly to discuss all the concerns of the students regarding the corona approach. We would like to emphasize again that we as a student council are very happy with these measures, which above all show confidence in the student to handle the situation responsibly. Herewith a report of the main points.

On Friday a strong advice was formulated at GEMS (ed. the advisory group for the government on the corona approach) to switch to Code Orange as of today, which would mean that a 20% occupancy was allowed to remain in the auditoriums and our work lectures, practicals and the like would be suspended. In reality, this would probably have meant that many lectures would have had to continue online. KU Leuven, however, is taking a different approach:

On-campus education with online alternatives

KU Leuven chooses to continue to give students the opportunity to physically come to classes, but with the recommendation to occasionally follow online as well. In this way you help reducing the number of people in the auditorium. If you come to the auditorium, try to sit according to the stickers if the room allows it. This arrangement will apply to every KU Leuven campus, provided that the local crisis cells do not decide to adopt other measures.

“I hope that this way, on a voluntary basis, we can maybe factually go to 40-50% occupancy“, the Rector said.

Note: if there is really no other way, we may still have to stiffen measures, but with this joint effort, we are doing everything we can to allow classes to continue physically until the block period.

Why does the KU Leuven choose to proceed in this way? 

• • Contact tracing gives no indication that the auditoriums are causing many infections;
  • Switching right before the cram period will not be beneficial to students, both academically and socially;
  • In a few weeks, the cram period will begin, which is expected to calm down the circulation of students anyway;
  • Currently, a fair number of students already take classes online on a voluntary basis.

  Work lectures, labs & excursions

• Currently, work lectures and labs will continue to be organized as you are used to. For excursions, it will be examined whether they are an essential activity for achieving the learning objectives.Sels: “Here we do a risk assessment in which we will do the maximum possible to continue [excursions]”.

         Study places in libraries and learning centers

• To maintain ventilation at a responsible level, occupancy in bibs and learning centers will be adjusted. Soon you will be able to reserve a study place through KURT again. For students who would like to study somewhere else, the virtual learning environments will be reopened.

        The Exam period

• Regarding the exam period, the agreement has already been made that most exams will continue physically with a lower occupancy rate. This means that in the current situation you can assume that your exam schedule is final.

Study cost control: contribute now!

To keep studying as affordable as possible for every student, and to give students a realistic view on the cost of their studies, KU Leuven wants to be able to provide data on the average cost for each program.

Therefore, we are looking for students who would like to keep track of their expenses for the purchase of study materials, study trips and internships for one academic year. In this way, students can get a better idea of the real costs of a programme or course.

Why is this project important?
In the video below, Zita, a dental student and representative, sums it up for you!

So, would you like to help your fellow students, or do you want to ensure that education remains affordable for future generations of students? Then be sure to join this initiative by contacting your Faculty Student Council or sending an email to studiekost@kuleuven.be.

What happens to my contribution?
With your help, every student will eventually be able to find the costs for study materials and other supplies in the ECTS sheet of a course. In addition, the aim is to address this topic annually in each Program Committee (POC), so that teachers and student representatives can keep an eye on the costs of a course together.

The Honorary Doctorates

Every year, KU Leuven awards Honorary Doctorates to persons of exceptional merit in the scientific, social and/or cultural fields.

Double Celebration

In 2021, the ceremony, called the Patron Saint’s day, could not take place live. This year the celebration took place on February 2th. The honorary doctorates of 2021 have received their honorary doctorates this day, too. As students, we also nominate an honorary doctor every year. But, who are they?

Honorary Doctor 2022: Philippe Grandjean

Last year, the GA chose physician and environmental epidemiologist Philippe Grandjean to receive the 2022 honorary doctorate. He specializes in the health consequences of exposure to environmental chemicals. Currently, his research focuses on the link between exposure to chemicals and behavioral development, the immune system and metabolic abnormalities. You can read more about Grandjean here.

Honorary Doctor 2021: Kate Raworth

Her research focuses on the relationship between economic growth and today’s challenges such as social inequality, global warming and the disadvantage of developing countries. She is also known for her book “Doughnut Economics. Find out more about Raworth at kateraworth.com

Laudatio

The awarding of an honorary doctorate is accompanied by a so-called laudatio. This is a speech of praise
in which the supervisor of the honorary doctorate explains why this person deserves an honorary doctorate. Every year, the Student Council President records a laudatio for the honorary doctor of the students. The laudations are shown during the Convocation ceremony.

Curious about the other honorary doctorates of ’21 and ’22, or want to know more about the Patron Saint’s Day? Check the KU Leuven website. Below, you can rewatch the full Convocation ceremony of this year.

Policy Plan Sustainability (GA 12/11/2021)

Soon, Vice-Chancellor of Sustainability Gerard Govers will write a new Sustainability Policy Plan together with the Sustainability Council. Our Sustainability Officer Liesa Vosch is also involved in this process. At the General Assembly on November 12, 2021, the FOs decided to submit the following points of interest from the Student Council for inclusion in the Sustainability Policy Plan:

Climate neutral by 2050

• Rector Sels has declared the ambition to become climate neutral by 2050. The KU Leuven needs to draw up a strategic plan with concrete aims and execute this in order to achieve a climate neutral university.

A Pioneer Role for KU Leuven

• KU Leuven needs to take on a pioneer role and communicate accordingly to the outside world. Also with regard to future students she can present herself as a sustainable university by for example already putting sustainable initiatives in the picture on info sessions.

Evidence-based Information and Tools for Students

• It’s important to draw enough attention to sustainability and to offer scientific information to students. A good example of an initiative that can help with this is the existence of Green Office. Activities like the Sustainability Week also play an important role. Initiatives like these need to be enhanced and extended.
• The KU Leuven needs to offer tools to students so that can make a difference in sustainability. This is for example possible within KU Leuven Engage or Service Learning. These initiatives, as well as the new website Beyond Boundaries, can be promoted more.

Consumption

• The KU Leuven can urge students to use less single use items by for example promoting the reusable coffee mugs and water bottles that are available in the KU Leuven shop more. In addition it would be convenient if students could wash their coffee mug in different places. This makes the use easier and encourages students.
• At all places where food is offered on KU Leuven domain, for example in vending machines, eco-scores could be displayed to show how sustainable the product is. The KU Leuven can also look into how sustainable the products that she offers in the KU Leuven shop are.
• The KU Leuven needs to urge people to separate their trash better. The KU Leuven works with an external company for the collection and separation of trash, but can look into how it can be organised more sustainably so as to recycle as much trash as possible and compost as much organic waste as possible.
• Teachers need to be encouraged to let students submit their assignments only digitally and not on paper. When a lot of students need to print an assignment, the amount of paper increases rapidly. Apart from that there needs to be looked into paper usage during exams and optimization of for instance PowerPoint lay-outs to save on ink.

More Green on Campus

• More green on campus: There are for example the community gardens Quantum Field and geogarden. These good initiatives can be elaborated and then promoted more. The KU Leuven can also look at the possibility of green roofs. They offer a lot of advantages and a lot of roofs are now unused. If the KU Leuven puts work into more green and gardens, the possibility to compile compost heaps can be created. That way students and staff will also be encouraged to separate their trash better.

Education

• Existing courses need to be evaluated thoroughly. New courses are welcome, but thought has to be put in what the aim of such courses is. A course that wants to inform as many students as possible needs to be organised differently from a course that wants to bring students from different disciplines together and create space for critical discussion.
• Science Shop and Living Lab: These initiatives are still very unknown to students. Promoters should also be encouraged to look at the possible subjects within their field of study that are in the database of the Science Shop. That way they can propose those to their students. Faculties should also promote the Science Shop and Living Lab on their thesis fairs and such. It is also not clear how much time there is between the choice of a subject and being able to start writing or how you can find a promoter that fits that subject.

Sustainability Staff

• On faculties where there is for example a working group on sustainability it is not very useful to appoint a staff member responsible for sustainability. Where there is an Ecoteam, they might take on the role to make the faculty more sustainable. They can also put sustainability on the agenda within the faculty. On faculties where nobody is bringing attention to sustainability it would be useful to find somebody who is interested in sustainability and wants to engage themself for it. Often it is useful to tackle sustainable initiatives on a bigger scale. We definitely see benefits in a staff member responsible for sustainability per campus.

Sustainable Funds & Investment Policy

• Where the KU Leuven accepts funds from external actors it is important to be aware of how these actors act when it comes to sustainability. The KU
  Leuven needs to be aware of where these funds are coming from. An elaborate reflection and a well thought-out policy are needed. This does not need to be limited to sustainability but can also be about other core values such as inclusion, respect for human rights etc.
• Where there is room for improvement, The KU Leuven needs to keep striving to make her investment policy more sustainable. This concerns the existing products as well as new products.

New Sustainability Report

• The last sustainability report dates back to 2018. A new report is useful if it serves as an instrument to find lacunas or points for improvement in the sustainability policy. We find it less of a priority if it is pure to communicate existing initiatives, because there are better ways to do that.

Transportation

• Subsidise train tickets for Erasmus students: The KU Leuven can make sure that the train becomes the cheapest option. She can also talk to partner universities to achieve that they also subsidise train tickets.

Attention for Alternative Frameworks

• The KU Leuven can also pay more attention to other initiatives besides SDG’s, like the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. This is still very unknown.