2023-09-18 17:51:00
“I still have many good years ahead of me and a lot of energy.” Vincent Blondel is completing his second five-year term as rector of UCLouvain this year. As rector of UCLouvain-Saint-Louis Brussels itself, the merger of the two establishments is now effective. “Exercising this role as rector has been a real privilege, I have enjoyed every second of it,” he confides to La .
Rectoral elections are planned at UCLouvain-Saint-Louis Brussels this academic year. Do you plan to run for a third term?
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I think it’s wise to let it go. Ten years is a long time. I invested a lot of energy. A renewal is a good thing. My two direct predecessors had served one term. Others before them had started a second one which they had interrupted, having reached the age limit. As far as I am concerned, I could have presented myself a third time but I will not do it. My desire is to inform the community well in advance, hence this announcement today. Until then, I will invest my all until September 1st.
After that ?
I will probably continue to teach, if possible. But I’ll probably try something different. I will be attentive to opportunities that arise. I plan to stay active. I will surely withdraw from the academic life of UCLouvain, while remaining very attached to the university world and that of higher education in Belgium and Europe. In recent years, I have been approached by several international universities. But I think that I will favor a future in Belgium. In any case, I will be in full support of the person who succeeds me, to ensure the most efficient transition possible.
Vincent Blondel, rector of UCLouvain: “There is a danger of imposing limits on university research on the basis of ideologies”
What do you want to remember from your two mandates?
UCLouvain has experienced several major advances, including significant growth in the number of students and the establishment of European partnerships. Our university collects almost half of European research funding in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. In addition, its international influence is very important. We must also mention the merger with Saint-Louis Brussels which is now taking shape, as well as the very strong rapprochement with our sister university, KULeuven. The university’s involvement in society, in a context that has changed a lot and will continue to change a lot, has never been so important.
What are the latest challenges you want to take on?
This school year is the start of the merger with Saint-Louis. A very long-term project, since the first discussions date back to 2015. There was a lot of reluctance but gradually, with perseverance, they were able to be overcome. UCLouvain, today, has eight campuses with a total of 40,000 students, including one in three in Brussels, in the sectors of health (Woluwe), human and social sciences (Saint-Louis, in the center ) and in architecture (in Saint-Gilles). Brussels, where UCLouvain also has a university hospital, the Saint-Luc university clinics, which welcome one in two patients in the capital.
The latest news from UCLouvain is therefore the merger with Saint-Louis University Brussels. Why is such decentralization important?
This very broad presence in Wallonia and Brussels is the result of our history. Driven out of Leuven fifty years ago, we made this choice, which has strengthened over the years, to be present both in Brussels and in several places in Wallonia. UCLouvain has in fact been present in Woluwe for half a century. This multi-site approach, which offers students proximity to training locations while being part of a large international university, is unique. Geographic proximity makes university education more accessible.
The FWB government agrees on the merger between UCLouvain and Saint-Louis Brussels
How will UCLouvain get involved in Brussels?
The immediate benefit of the merger is to combine the expertise of the two institutions. This includes contributing to the socio-economic development of the capital. UCLouvain is still a success story in Louvain-la-Neuve, with the development by our students of companies like Aerospacelab (artificial satellites) or E2 Drives (with its motors for electric bicycles). For its part, Saint-Louis brings extremely advanced expertise in bilingual and trilingual programs in which more than half of its students are enrolled. These programs are organized jointly with KULeuvent, also present in Brussels. The latter has acquired buildings near Saint-Louis which will accommodate thousands of students in the future. Fifty years after the split, UCLouvain and KULeuven will therefore find themselves on a multilingual campus in Brussels: quite a symbol. In addition, our students are involved in the city’s major development issues. The university provides multidisciplinary insight into a range of themes such as mobility, energy, urban planning, public health and inclusiveness.
Minister-President Jeholet and the new Minister of Higher Education, Françoise Bertieaux (both MR), discuss the idea of carrying out a certain “cleaning” in the courses offered to students. What do you think ?
Should we organize all these sectors? Should there be so many students in some of them? There is a permanent tension between those who believe that the university must produce directly employable people, and those who see the world changing and talk about training the critical outlook of citizens who will ensure the changes in tomorrow’s society. You have to find the right balance. That being said, we can eliminate certain programs, but this will not reduce the number of students, nor increase funding per student, which has decreased by 20% in 15 years.
What is behind this explosion in the number of students?
There are links with demography, with access to higher education, with the flow of students from abroad, and with the lengthening of the duration of studies. If each student stays longer, there are always more registered.
Could this be fixed with the new success rules?
It’s a little too early to tell. We follow very carefully all the results of the universities at the level of the Cref (the Council of French-speaking rectors). This represents one million exam marks per academic year.
Françoise Bertieaux: “The new rules make it possible for certain students to understand more quickly that studies are not for them”
Do you have a first return of the results for 2022-2023?
We do not yet have all the figures collated by Cref, but from what I have for UCLouvain, I can say that the success rates for September are not very different from previous years. I imagine it will be the same elsewhere. In January and June, 45% of exams taken in Bac 1 were passed, as well as 65 to 70% for the rest of the baccalaureate and 80% in master’s. In September, we are traditionally a little below that.
If success rates do not increase, should we conclude that the success aids are not effective?
Great efforts are being made at this level. Specific measures are of course put in place to support students. But in all courses, support for success also means the provision of premises, new tools, the desire to increase supervision, etc. All of this contributes to making the students’ journey a journey of success. Finally, support for success also includes orientation and possible reorientation.
A year ago, during this same back-to-school interview, you mentioned the possibility of aligning the annual rhythms of higher education more closely with those of compulsory education. Why didn’t anything happen?
The main dates of the academic year are fixed by decree. Any change must therefore involve a modification of this text. I personally plead for our calendar to be more in line with that of compulsory education, with a gentler year including more continuous assessments. This would be beneficial overall for everyone. The student would start the academic year earlier, at the beginning of September. The exams would take place before the Christmas holidays, which would allow two weeks of real vacation and the resumption of classes immediately afterwards. The idea would also be to synchronize one of the two weeks of Easter with the obligatory one. Finally, the catch-up session would be organized before the summer holidays which would also become a real rest. I welcome this development because it is unreasonable to maintain the current significant gap between the superior and the obligatory. This puts families in difficulty and makes a series of activities more complicated. Obviously, such a change would have consequences in other sectors. We must therefore look at things globally. But I think that if we wait until everyone agrees, we will never move forward.
– > Vincent Blondel will be the guest of Maxime Binet’s Café sansfilter, this Tuesday morning on LN24.
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