More leadership, more research and more Europe, while maintaining the course of recent years. That sums up my project for the next four years. Just like any election, you can’t have a rector election without a programme, without a campaign and without debate. In truth, the fact that I am the only candidate doesn’t make this any easier. Having an opponent forces you to raise your performance. But what makes this truly unreal is the context of the coronavirus in which we currently find ourselves. However necessary it might be, debating has become difficult practically and is only possible online. My policy plan was prepared before the crisis began. The title – thought up before there was any mention of coronavirus – today sounds rather prophetic: The future is a foreign country: they do things differently there. I invite everyone to read the plan in full (in Dutch, English version will be posted later) – with a critical eye, of course! – but I would like to briefly highlight a few key points.
After the coronavirus, nothing will really be the same again. We should see this as an opportunity – despite the difficulties that will undoubtedly follow – to make the world a better, fairer place. A world more in accordance with the values of the Enlightenment, which are also the values of VUB. The current academic year 2019-2020, a birthday year and a year of celebration for us, has sadly been interrupted halfway through. But we will reschedule the events that we had planned.
Together with ULB, we are 185 years old. On our own, we are 50 years young, and as fresh and energetic as we were in 1969. When ULB was created in 1834, our founder Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen explained it to King Leopold as follows: “Being able to examine what is of value for mankind and for society, free from political and religious authority, to freely explore the sources of truth and goodness. See, Your Majesty, the mission of our university.”
On 20 September 2019, ULB rector Yvon Engels and I presented our mission once again, this time to King Filip, who attended our festive academic opening in the Jubelpark along with 7,000 other people. When it comes to our values and our drive, nothing has changed in 185 years. The context may be different, of course, and our challenge is much more complex, but our profound commitment still comes from the same source. And science remains indispensable in tackling the great challenges in the capital, in society and in the world. The coronavirus crisis makes this clear. Science is indispensable not only in fighting the virus but in countless other fields. It is becoming increasingly multi- and interdisciplinary, as described in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Commission’s Missions in Horizon Europe.
Towards 2030
In the past four years, we have literally and figuratively started numerous new building works. My first policy plan, VUB as a 21st-century university, led to the general strategic plan ASP2030 with four (in this case figurative) building works and five radical pillars. With 2030 as a perspective, we began to work on a VUB that is always learning, open, warm and connected. And we linked five radical pillars to this: radically humanist, radically digital, radically diverse, radically democratic and radically sustainable. Words that we have regularly turned into deeds. We’ve added all the major achievements of the past four years to the policy plan, and frankly, those achievements are impressive. And that is of course thanks to all of us.
As we chose 2030 as the horizon for ASP2030, that means by definition that the work cannot stop in 2020. We will maintain this course and build further on what we have achieved. But where my first term as rector put extra focus on radical diversity and humanism, an effort that we will of course continue, the second mandate will focus intensely on becoming radically digital and sustainable. Maintaining that course – a course that has led to more students, more research and more connectivity – is therefore my first priority in the policy plan for 2020. There are three additional priorities, resulting in a four-point programme:
- the compass is correct: we will maintain the course of the 2016 policy plan and the General Strategic Plan 2030 based on it (ASP2030);
- we will not just grow but bloom, based on a solid framework: we will focus on governance, leadership, infrastructure and people, so that we not only grow but we do so without sacrificing quality and individuality;
- we will continue to build a research-driven educational establishment with a pioneering attitude, by making smart choices and setting the right priorities. Collaboration will leave space for fundamental, applied and translational research. Our innovation and research strengths must help us to make strategic choices;
- we will set our course for ‘horizon Europe’: the European and international academic landscape is going through major changes. VUB must clearly position itself here, as a pioneering Flemish university in multicultural Brussels, strongly anchored in Europe – such as in our EUTOPIA network – and internationally orientated. From the centre of Europe we connect with the world.
This, in a nutshell, is what I aim to achieve in my second term as rector. It relies on my receiving the necessary support from the VUB community, from colleagues, from students and from those who work in UZ Brussel. Though naturally they have things other than rector elections on their minds at this time. I am proud of our UZ Brussel, and of the boundless commitment and immeasurable efforts of all care workers in the fight against coronavirus. I am also proud of the switch to digital education that we have had to make so abruptly, and which demands so much of all of us, students and staff. Above all I am grateful that thanks to you, VUB is still here, and can begin the next 50 years full of confidence.
Plurality
People become human in plurality, according to the philosopher Hannah Arendt. People also become human by working and studying at VUB: the 720 windows of our fantastic and fully renovated Braemgebouw look out over the liberty and diversity of humans. A campus with 146 nationalities, in the heart of Europe and with a student population of whom almost a quarter are international. We don’t look at the world as an outsider, rather we are a part of society. Sometimes as a conscience, sometimes as an innovator and always as part of a dialogue.
Dialogue and democracy also mean that you will have the last word in endorsing my proposals. I am committed, if I am elected, to working together and in consultation with all those affected to put them into practice. With the 2020 policy plan as my guide, and with all of you, we can grow VUB further, with more impact, more appeal and even more quality. So please vote, that is important: there is a quorum for all categories that must be achieved. In these strange lockdown days, the elections are an important indicator to continue the process and make adjustments where necessary. Scientia vincere tenebras. Conquering darkness through science. That is, and remains, our true motivation and our most important raison d’être.
The rector elections will take place from 20 April to 4 May 2020. For the second time in the history of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, all members of the university community are able to participate in choosing the next rector. Staff of UZ Brussel may also vote. You decide who will lead the university – which includes the university hospital – for the next four academic years (2020-2024). Your vote is hugely important.
Send in your questions for Caroline Pauwels now. She will answer them during live Q&A sessions:
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Thursday 23/4 from 1.30 - 2.30 PM - staff Dutch
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Monday 27/4 from 4 - 5 PM - students Dutch
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Wednesday 29/4 from 9.30 - 10.30 AM – students and staff English