Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

That simplicity came to an end in the 2013 – 2014 academic year. A lot of professional master’s programmes at Flemish colleges became academic master’s programmes. This evolution meant that all over Flanders former university colleges continued to sail under the flag of a university. As a result, we switched to a ‘multicampus model’. Consequently, since the 2013-2014 academic year, a student at KU Leuven no longer necessarily studied in Leuven.

Whether you study Business Studies in Antwerp, Architecture in Brussels or Law in Leuven, as long as you follow an academic programme at an institution of the KU Leuven Association, you are officially a KU Leuven student. This has its consequences when important decisions are made at the top of the university.

The old representation model had seen its best days. They had to look for a new structure to give students a full voice on every campus. It was decided to split LOKO into a campus council and a university-wide student council. Student Council KU Leuven (Stura) was born. Since then, Stura represents all KU Leuven students, regardless of whether they study in Leuven or elsewhere and whether they are Flemish or international students.

On 27 September 2013, our very first substantive General Assembly was organised. As there were still some positions open in our new student council at the time, this was directly the first major elective GA.

On this day, the first president, vice-president and general administrator were elected. Alongside this, the Pecuniary Control Committee (PCC) was also completed. This committee examines whether Stura’s budget is properly implemented and checks the financial operations.

Furthermore, some files were already discussed at this first GA: adjustments to the electoral regulations, a proposal for the GA’s meeting rhythm, proposals for improving campus operations and the organisation of Stura’s first educational congress were discussed.

On 16 November 2013, Stura organised its first education congress. With an accessible and low-threshold congress, Stura aimed to put relevant and pressing education topics on the agenda for students, professors and policymakers. The first theme chosen was flexibilisation, a topic that the four candidate rectors from the previous year very often mentioned and on which they had (sometimes divergent) opinions.

As a playful protest against the underfunding of universities, the Stura team built a wooden auditorium in the courtyard of Pope’s College on 1 April 2014. The following day former Rector Torfs was present at this ‘pop-up auditorium’ to engage in conversation with about 50 students: he too felt that universities were receiving too few operating grants from the Flemish government.

More info on this topic can be found in this VRT-article (NL).

The first meetings of this year took place during ‘s Meiers 5-midweek. At the time, this was the traditional opening of the representation year together with LOKO. the midweek took place this year at the Youth Centre ‘Malou’ in Balen. Besides the meetings, there were also several formation sessions and leisure activities, including a cantus.

In Leuven, as well as in Ghent, Brussels and Hasselt, students marched through the streets with torches on 5 November 2014 to show that they remained concerned about cuts in higher education. In Leuven, this march was organised in collaboration with LOKO, under the slogan ‘no students out in the cold!’.

Stura and LOKO argued that the planned social funding cuts were making higher education unaffordable for many (future) students. They argued that, moreover, this was done at the expense of the vulnerable scholarship student.

The organisations feared that alma meals, rents, study support, affordable bicycles as well as student initiatives such as the 24-hour run, representation work and orientation activities would suffer.

In Leuven, the torchlight parade started at Ladeuzeplein with around 300 students, after which a few speeches were also given and the atmosphere was more than present.

Fun fact: a year and a half later, the cuts the students were protesting against here were reversed by former Education Minister Hilde Crevits. 

On 28 February 2015, Stura organised its second education congress, this time around ‘(re)orientation towards, in and from higher education’. The congress consisted of a panel discussion, several topical and discourse sessions and concluded with a debate. Several internal and external speakers attended the congress, including  former Rector Rik Torfs.

During Stura’s second year of operation, it was 10 years since the Flemish Parliament approved the participation decree, formalising student representation by decree. Accompanied by the head of student policy and the president of the Student Council of the VUB, Stura and the faculty representatives busily discussed the then current student participation and its future. All this with a nice appetiser in hand.

• The ‘reclassification academic year’ file has already been discussed several times at the GAs of this operating year.
• Student council KU Leuven considered leaving VVS because of, among other things, a lack of transparent communication towards the local student councils. Stura’s GA eventually decided to remain affiliated with VVS after all and to engage in an open dialogue.
• The KU Leuven Student Council’s proposal for the reform of teacher education became the blueprint for a renewed teacher education at KU Leuven, showing that students can make a difference, even proactively.

Since the beginning of Stura, weekly meetings were held in Auditorium Lacroix, an old auditorium with few comforts, no internet and poor temperature control. Nevertheless, the auditorium had a certain charm and the hemisphere lent itself perfectly to discussions where everyone could see each other. However, the auditorium was demolished this year. To say goodbye to the auditorium, a real alumni event was organised for all representatives in the form of a cantus.

There was a need for a new meeting place, and MTC was an inviting choice because of the technical facilities available. Other advantages that could not be ignored were that it was close to ‘s Meiers (and De Werf) and you could always walk outside without calling the central dispatch. The internet did sometimes cause distractions and it got quite cold in winter, but of course perfect does not exist. To this day, Stura’s General Meetings still go on at the MTC.

To get the recruitment campaign off to a good start, Stura organised a faculty bar tour at the end of March 2016. They did not do this alone, they were joined in this by then-rector Rik Torfs, who visited Recup, HdR, Fakbar Letteren and Politika Kaffee with the student representatives. Around midnight, the rector went home and the tour continued to Doc’s bar, the Sportzak and ‘t Elixir.

Saturday, 27 February 2016, Stura organised its third annual education congress. Within the theme of ‘educational innovation in higher education’, forms of work and evaluation as well as financing innovation were put on the table.

Filip Dochy (pedagogue and researcher) gave a presentation on efficient teaching, after which the president of Stura entered into a dialogue with him on the practical feasibility of innovative methods in higher education. Peter Lievens (then dean of Science) brought up the topic of permanent evaluation, after which Mario Gielen (UGent), Martijn Roelen (Educational Policy Department KU Leuven) and Veerle Hulpiau (KU Leuven) presented working methods such as peer assessment, the function of workplace learning and the station test.

This section was followed by two debates. The first debate juxtaposed proponents of oral examinations with advocates of written testing. The second debate discussed the financing of innovations in higher education with Pedro De Bruyckere (pedagogue), Rik Torfs (then rector of KU Leuven), Kathleen Helsen (then Flemish MP CD&V) and Elisabeth Meuleman (then Flemish MP Groen).

On 6 May 2016, after just under a year of meetings at the MTC, the first GA with livestream was organised. This way, all campuses could finally participate without making the far trip to Leuven. Some PPW representatives even followed the GA from a conference in Portugal. However, remarks still had to be given via the representatives who were physically present.

• In September 2015, Stura’s new chair already resigned due to personal reasons. Vice-chairman Joris Gevaert replaced them and was himself eventually elected as the new chairman on 16 October 2015.
• On 13 November 2015, Stura teamed up with Ingenia Gent for a GA on the move. This GA was such a success that student representatives from other campus cities were also present, including from Bruges and Kortrijk.
• Since Stura’s inception, various forms of team building had already taken place. At the end of November 2015, however, the first real GB weekend took place, a tradition that is still a fixture in our operation today. In 2015, Stura headed to the Ardennes, where time was also made for study, in addition to a visit to Maredsous Abbey and the local Christmas market.
• Ahead of the 2016-2017 rectorial election, a GB meeting took place on 7 December 2015 that lasted for a whopping seven hours. This is an unsurpassed duration for a General Board until today.
• LOKO, Veto and Stura organised a ‘LOKO vs Stura vs Veto’ cantus to forge ties between the ‘s-Meiers 5 residents. Later in the year, a football match was also organised in which LOKO and Stura teamed up against Veto and won 22-2.
• Stura left VVS together with Student Council UAntwerp in May 2016, mainly due to tensions between university student councils and college student councils. “A university file should be decided by a university student, not college students. They may participate in discussions but they should not participate in decisions,” the then president of Stura KU Leuven said in this regard.

• Other

  • The 600 years KU Leuven dossier comes to the table for the first time.
  • Gender-inclusive (then neutral) measures and facilities were discussed for the first time at the GA.

A leitmotif throughout this academic year was Plan POC. The aim was to strengthen the COBRA process by strengthening the Programme Committee (POC) functioning. To this end, Stura received impulse funding that allowed all kinds of initiatives to be conceived. Plan POC consisted of three phases: thinking about the ideal POC, questioning how the POCs currently worked and drawing up and offering a training and support offer around POC working, including a training weekend, the forerunner of the current FO weekend.

As icing on the cake, there was the night of the POC:

During this grand awards show in the Museum Hall, student representatives could nominate programme directors, POCs and Open Educational Meetings for a chance to win all kinds of prizes for their efforts during this year. Drinks and sushi were generously provided and the prizes were awarded by a jury that included Rector Rik Torfs.

This was the first year for Stura in which rectorial elections were organised. Although the 2015-2016 team had already done a lot of work, the preparation was far from complete.

The election process was long and turbulent, resulting in several complaints from the parties involved. Eventually, Stura decided to resign from the election committee and file a complaint against the committee chairman.

Rector Luc Sels eventually narrowly got elected after the academic council ruled that there were so many complaints from both parties that they cancelled each other out, so to speak.

Although the exam survey is now a fixture, Stura organised its first exam survey in January 2017. It was then also distributed on paper in the various learning centres, which caused a lot of work: the questionnaires all had to be printed (50 questions) in thousands of copies. Reviewing and digitising them afterwards, so that the results could be merged with the digital survey conducted across all campuses, was also a hassle.

The exam survey did however prove to be an immediate success: the results were presented at the education council and were still often referred to in policy.

Besides the bustle of the rectorial elections, this year KU Leuven also had to undergo an institution review, for which Stura also delegated mandataries.

The campus coordinator largely took care of this, with further work being divided among a number of other mandataries.

Stura came out of this review very positively and was called a great added value for the university.

• In 2016, Stura organised an extra-elaborate edition of the Stuverwelkom: an annual tradition to get the representation year off to a good start with all faculty representatives. Among others, a meet and greet, many orientation sessions, the opening GA and an extensive buffet with cocktail bar graced this day.
• Agenda problems sometimes made organising a STOF in the evening difficult. As a solution to this, a new concept was introduced on 8 March 2016: the formation lunch. While enjoying snacks and drinks, it was possible to have busy discussions with the people from service learning. This was followed by another extensive meeting on a frequently recurring file: reclassification of the academic year.
• 2015-2016 was also marked by some big steps in sustainability. Mandatary Tom Merlevede led the development of an open letter to stop KU Leuven’s investments in fossil fuels. Disposable cups and bottles at the GA would also become history from then on.
• Many interesting files were (again) discussed at the GA this year: notes on transgressive behaviour, reform of teacher evaluations, reclassification of the academic year, maximum bill, quality of ECTS sheets, gender and doping control for exams were among the topics discussed.

The most distinctive action of academic year 2017-2018 was the ‘Did you miss May’ campaign, intended as a playful action against the academic year reform that was high on the agenda this year. With flyers, qr codes and actions at the Rectorate the campaign received a lot of attention and reached many students and staff.

The goal of listening more to students on this issue was achieved and many changes the Rector’s Office wanted to make were modified or dropped. Time was taken to discuss with all stakeholders.

There are several universities worldwide where some learning centres are open 24/7. A discussion had been going on for some time whether this would also make sense at KU Leuven.

Stura took it to the test and kept Agora open for a full night on 18 December 2017. Brownies and chocolate milk were sold at small prices for the studying students. Proceeds from that night were donated to Fund Dieter for ‘De Warmste Week’.

The night attracted quite a crowd and students who left were soon interspersed with new ones.

In May 2018, some representatives of LOKO and Stura travelled to Nijmegen (NL) to exchange ideas and best practices on student representation with the University Student Council of RU Nijmegen and the Allgemeine Studierendenauschuss of the University of Cologne (DE).

One topic that was very present was how co-governance for stureps was organised at the three universities. There was so much to discuss that there appeared to be too little time to do everything on the programme.

Due to fewer candidates and some mandate holders resigning early on, Stura worked with a smaller team this year. In doing so, they could count on a lot of support and interaction from the FCBs.

Due to a lack of Board of Director (BoD) positions, these tasks were divided among a few mandate holders (Board Executive SET, two Education Council mandate holders and an SLO mandate holder). The chairman of the GA changed a few times during the year.

More info on this can be found through this Veto article (NL).

Stura started this year with a team with little previous Stura experience. For example, the entire BoD was made up of people who were in the FCBs last year.

To strengthen operations and make good use of the experience of the Academic Council (AC) mandataries, a new body was created between the BoD and the General Board: the Daily Board, in which the BoD and AR mandataries joined forces.

On 4 and 5 April, 17 student representatives from six UNA partners were invited to a conference in Leuven. Some workshops were organised to give a picture of how participation works at each university. The partners were also introduced to the city of Leuven and the different FCBs.

What is UNA Europa? We explain it to you in this and this video.

At the request of the various FCBs, an extra training day for Student representatives was organised in the second semester. This allowed them to go deeper into certain matters with the experienced stureps, but also allowed the new stureps to be more prepared for the next academic year.

International students, both those on exchange and those completing a full programme at KU Leuven, were less involved in representation than Dutch-speaking students.

Specific difficulties they faced throughout their time at the university were previously partially underexposed. That is why this year, in cooperation with International Office, the campus councils and Pangaea, Stura set up a sounding board for internationals: the Assembly for International Students (AFIS).

To this day, Stura continues to organise this several times a year in Brussels and in Leuven.

This academic year, the last preparations were carried out to fully roll out educational masters from the next academic year.

After positive TNOs (tests of new courses), everything became very concrete. Stura was above all the voice that ensured a smooth flow to the new EduMas.

This year it also immediately became clear that a thorough annual evaluation of the new system would be a necessity.

You can read all about it in this Veto article (NL).

This year’s General Assembly discussed, among other things, the follow-up to the rectoral team’s policy plans, the learning line on sustainability, study cost control, distribution of learning and examination materials, the KU Leuven app and calibration tests. Veto wrote about the latter in this article (NL).

Typical for this academic year was the coronavirus, which at its peak shut down large parts of social life and the university from March 2020.

Just before the lockdown, there was a final memorable GA where only one representative per FCB was allowed to attend for safety.

Online conferencing became the new standard and later brought the permanent option of hybrid conferencing, which is here to stay in Stura’s future.

In preparation for a new edition of the Night of the Programme Committee (POC), Plan POC was also revived.

This had two major facets: a series of events aimed at educating POC members and a communication plan to raise POC’s profile.

On 5 November 2019, there was a ‘kick-off’ event in the form of a training evening with a subsequent reception. Plan POC and the associated event Night of the POC were discontinued in March 2020 because of COVID-19. The anticipated awards were still presented in the new digital format adopted by the university.

During this academic year, Stura, LOKO and Veto temporarily moved to Minderbroedersstraat 10 (Rega X), while student centre ‘s Meiers was completely renovated.

More than three years after Stura quit the Flemish Association of Students (VVS), the General Assembly decided to rejoin. The GA followed the reasoning that Stura could exert greater influence on Flemish policy with the help of the decree-based VVS. In addition, the association had implemented reforms that nullified previous objections to being part of VVS.

You can find more about the rejoining of VVS in this Veto article (NL).

The most high-profile notes of this academic year covered, among other things, calibration tests, re-examination policy, KU Leuven learning lab, the milestone file, the impact of corona on higher education and the task force on Mental Well-being.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.

Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.