The Vice-Rector for Student Affairs is the voice of the student community and faculties regarding student life at the university, both academic and extra-academic. He or she is also responsible for facilitating the transition to university for all those who wish to study there.
A specialist in Dutch language and linguistics, Philippe Hiligsmann joined the academic world out of a passion for teaching and research on Dutch language and culture. He chaired the departments of Multilingual Communication and Modern Languages before being elected Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Humanities in 2012. Re-elected in 2015, he implemented the "Landscape" decree within his faculty and led the integration of translators-interpreters within UCLouvain.
In the academic dimension of his mandate as Vice-Rector, he is responsible for the implementation of the General Regulations for Studies and Exams and is the appeal body against certain decisions. He is also in charge of social policy and chairs the Conseil des Affaires Sociales et Etudiantes (CASE), organised in a central assembly (CASE central) and in local assemblies in Louvain-la-Neuve, Woluwe, Mons, Tournai and Saint-Gilles. To carry out these missions, he relies on the members of his Office.
The extra-academic dimension of its mission concerns the politics of student life at the university. Here too, it relies on the Administration de la Vie Étudiante (AVIE), whose areas of action are social and health assistance, housing, physical and sports activities, food, as well as relations with student activities and student representation.
The Observatoire de la Vie Étudiante, which he chairs, is a body with a participatory vocation that allows various elements of student life to be brought together in connection with the CASEs. Supporting transitions to university, the link with students with specific profiles (PEPS), the cost of studies, monitoring the rental market and the implementation of anti-harassment prevention measures are priorities that he has set for himself in the exercise of his mandate.