Electoral Commission: staff and Louvain Student General Assembly questions

Our university stands for values of respect, justice, equal opportunities and inclusion. We therefore have a moral duty to defend a committed “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) policy.

Remarkable work has been done with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion General Assembly, the reports on harassment and gender-based violence, the Gender Equality Plan and the DEI Strategic Plan. This work now forms a roadmap for implementing a concrete action plan over the next five years.

In the short term, the DEI Strategic Plan proposes to initiate the process through levers for action with multiplier effects. We want to give priority to these levers because they have an impact on both representation and organisational practices. We propose to take up the nine concrete courses of action proposed to the Rectoral Council in January 2024:

1. Encourage the recruitment and careers of women and socially minoritised groups through the cascade measure (leaky pipeline effect in the career path).
2. Create effective online training to raise awareness and provide training in identifying and combating bias, stereotypes and all forms of discrimination.
3. Innovate in DEI-based research through the launch of a Louvain4EDI.
4. Innovate in DEI-based education via a project to create and make available tools for deploying inclusive educational methods (via the FDP) or the promotion of Oikos dissertations.
5. Extend our internal gender monitoring (quantitative report) to DEI issues as part of the institutional scorecard.
6. Raise the profile of the DEI policy through our various communication channels (internet, campus).
7. Create DEI internet and intranet sites for UCLouvain.
8. Offer an appropriate response to any staff or students involved in a transition process.
9. Renew the momentum created by renaming our infrastructure and spaces.

In order to steer this DEI Strategic Plan, it is essential to have clear governance that is representative of our university community. We are proposing the creation of a DEI Council led by a pro-rector for diversity, equity, inclusion and gender issues, who will reinforce the rector’s team on these issues. The aim will be to instil a genuine culture of excellence in DEI and to play a proactive role in facilitating and catalysing initiatives in this area within the university community.

I want us to become the university that is “preferred” by all our internal and external stakeholders for its excellent research and high-quality, innovative education that meets the current and future challenges of an inclusive, sustainable society.

The current financial situation gives us the means to achieve this ambition.

• Regarding education, my budget priorities will be to:
  1. mobilise a significant hourly paid academics envelope to reduce standard teaching hours (130 hours per academic, recognition of internal mandates, a genuine sabbatical year, etc.);
  2. generalise the practice of student monitors to substantially reduce the managerial workload of teaching assistants and enable them to complete their PhD studies successfully;
  3. invest in educational innovation in all its forms to assert our leadership through LLL, FDPs, MOOCs, etc.;
  4. initiate the Masterplan des Espaces d’Enseignement Transsectoriel (MEET, “Masterplan for Cross-Sector Teaching Spaces”) to ensure that we provide the teaching and learning spaces needed to accommodate new pedagogies on all the campuses of our University;
  5. supporting distance learning in a variety of forms, including support for massive open online courses (MOOCs), ensuring that these courses simultaneously benefit a large international community of learners as well as our own students, across all campuses.

We also need to regain the top ranking in terms of student numbers very quickly if we are to sustain our resources in the medium term, which means we need to take action on our promotion of studies schemes and the quality of our website.

• Regarding research, my budget priorities will be to:
  1. stabilise existing research support staff and their reinforcement by new recruits (research logicians, logistics and accounting unit, scientists, technicians, particularly those working on our University’s technology platforms);
  2. create new grants to stimulate research (disruptive transdisciplinary exploratory grants, non-competitive doctoral grants, master’s grants for future international doctoral students, etc.) and the creation of a unit to organise summer and winter schools, which could also stimulate multi- and transdisciplinary approaches;
  3. fund a systematic analysis of internal organisational processes by professionals, with the aim of reducing administrative burdens through administrative streamlining in all of the University’s key processes.
      
• Regarding serving society, my budget priorities will be to:
  1. accelerate the Transition Plan in its six areas of development, ensuring that it is expanded to all of the University’s campuses, i.e. education and research; university infrastructure (sustainable campus, biodiversity, energy consumption, etc.); mobility; food; regional development; and the cultural offering;
  2. support continuing education so that it becomes an extension of our higher education offering and MOOCs;
  3. support secondary-to-higher education transition, guidance and learning support initiatives for priority groups.

The director general is responsible for the university’s financial and budgetary management, ensuring the financial security of the university’s real estate assets and urban development, and managing all the administrative services required for the smooth running of the university. She therefore obviously plays a central role in bringing our institutional projects to fruition.

The future of our University depends on excellent strategic alignment between the director general and the rector in their respective areas of responsibility. This duo is an asset for the University and will play a role in mobilising, planning and negotiating with our socio-economic and political fabric to manage our development as effectively as possible. Together, we will build a bold University.

Regarding our multicampus operation, we have to acknowledge the remarkable work done by the teams on the ground who make it function. However, two questions remain unanswered: “At what cost?” and “What is the objective?”

Each campus of our University must be able to carry out its own projects for the future, and we must put in place an organisation that will serve these projects. In human terms, our current multicampus model is exhausting in terms of the costs of internal coordination, control, motivation, responsiveness, cross-functionality, etc. The complexity and cumbersomeness of our current organisation have too many direct repercussions on the quality of life at work and the fulfilment of staff members. We must dare to put into practice the principles of subsidiarity, which are based on a climate of trust and autonomy, and which encourage a management style based on delegation and empowerment, so that each person, at his or her level of responsibility, can take initiatives without having to systematically refer to his or her line or functional superior.

The challenges associated with the multicampus dimension of our University are many and varied in nature.

In Brussels, the challenge is to make a success of the merger with Saint-Louis in a spirit of mutual respect, capitalising on the experience and assets of each. We must also ensure a strong link between our Woluwe campus, Saint-Luc University Hospital, CHU UCLouvain Namur and the UCLouvain administrations in Louvain-la-Neuve.

Regarding the LOCI Faculty, an efficient and fulfilling working environment must be guaranteed for the staff in Louvain-la-Neuve, Saint-Gilles and Tournai. LOCI is the only faculty on three campuses and in distant geographical areas.

In Hainaut Province, the renovation of the Tournai campus and the development of the UCLouvain FUCaM Mons campus must be continued, while preparing for the arrival of a new campus in Charleroi in 2026.

Our current way of operating is no longer suited to responding flexibly to the needs of this type of multicampus development. If we want to become an attractive multicampus university, we need to make the most of the specific features of each of our university’s campuses and capitalise on their strengths, knowledge of the local socio-economic fabric, assets, dynamism and ability to demonstrate agility. We will apply a “differentiated management approach”.

Each campus will be supported in the construction of a unifying and ambitious project that will be a source of differentiation and collective mobilisation. We must ensure standardisation and centralisation where there is a proven benefit and strong synergies are anticipated. We need to provide local administrative services that are commensurate with the campus project in order to make a difference in our three university missions.

The objective is to implement a differentiated and flourishing multicampus operation, serving ambitious academic projects on each of the campuses of our University in order to contribute to their regional, national and international influence.

The University is by nature an open place based on inclusiveness and equal opportunities. It must also guarantee each student’s progress and success in their course, guaranteeing their future professional development.

To do this, we must invest in student guidance, facilitate the transition between secondary school and university and commit to helping them succeed. These different systems are explicitly integrated into our University Social Responsibility (USR) policy, which is part of our university mission of serving society.

We propose to initiate the “CARE” project (Continuum d’Accompagnement à la Réussite des Etudiant·e·s les plus fragilisé·e·s, “Continuum of Support for the Success of the Most Vulnerable Students”) by targeting four priority audiences, namely:

• students in precarious situations (financial precarity which no longer allows them to fully enjoy their fundamental rights such as food, health, social and cultural life or digital access);
• new bachelor’s students;
• first-time students entering our University (bridging students);
• international students.
• This project will be coupled with an intensification of the “Student Buddy Programme”. The “buddies” are likened to big sisters or brothers who listen to their little sisters and brothers, support, advise, inform and motivate them, and encourage their commitment and sense of belonging to and integration into the University. More generally, our desire is to institutionalise the culture of mentoring within our University.

We support the idea of University Social Responsibility (USR), which invites our University to think about its actions from a perspective of responsible and inclusive development in the service of sustainable regional, national and European development.

The University contributes to this development through its central role in innovation. Our desire is to actively participate in the creation of virtuous innovation ecosystems, around each of our campuses, based on the strong interconnection between the University, public authorities and economic actors, but also the civil society and natural environments of our societies (the quintuple helix model).

Our contribution to innovation will also involve our ability to strengthen the development of our research in the broad sense, with the help of the new Sopartec and the Louvain Technology Transfer Office (LTTO) on all of our campuses.

Our contribution to sectors experiencing skills shortages will involve strengthening our guidance structures for first-time students (bachelor’s, bridging master’s, HD, etc.), and raising awareness among secondary school students about careers in STEM fields, health care, education, logistics, IT, etc. Our alumni network also constitutes a potential lever for mobilisation to contribute to sectors experiencing skills shortages.

Since February 2021, our University has jointly developed a Transition Plan, which has provided a systemic approach to the question of the role of our University in these societal issues.

We wish to accelerate the implementation of the Transition Plan in order to fully assume our model role in University Social Responsibility (USR). Our desire is to guarantee the continuity of the dynamic initiated by the 2021–25 Transition Plan, by extending our action to all of our campuses.

This Transition Plan proposes precise objectives included in six priority areas of development, which are: education and research, university infrastructure (sustainable campus, biodiversity, energy consumption, etc.), mobility, food, territorial development, and the cultural offering.

To support this policy we are planning a pro-rector for University Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development as well as the creation of a representative body for University Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development(RSUD2), directly under our University’s Board of Governors.

Student life is at the heart of our University. It is essential, in close collaboration with the vice-rector for student affairs, to launch a PAVÉ: an ambitious Plan d’Amélioration de la Vie Étudiante (“Student Life Improvement Plan”), exclusively dedicated to student life, with the participation of all concerned university community actors.

This plan will consider all the themes that directly concern students in a holistic and cross-cutting manner within the University in order to collectively formulate relevant strategic development areas, objectives, priorities and, above all, a concrete action plan over five years (2024–29).

Thirteen projects will be implemented on each campus of our University to guarantee fair treatment of each student within our community:

1. Social and student precariousness
2. Harassment and discrimination
3. Health
4. Accommodation
5. Food service
6. Reception and integration
7. Disability
8. Student jobs
9. Transport and mobility
10. Physical and athletic activities
11. Cultural activities
12. Student involvement (theme-based shared student accommodation, student clubs, regional clubs, elective mandates, etc.)
13. Eco-responsibility

Alongside the development of this Student Life Improvement Plan, which will bear fruit in the medium term, there is a need to act in the very short term on student precarity.

Our University already offers several solutions to students in vulnerable situations, but finding support systems remains difficult. Our objective will be to work on a coordinated service offering between services within and outside the University (FWB, CPAS, social grocery store, etc.) on all of its campuses, in order to ensure that all students concerned benefit from the assistance to which they are entitled in an equitable manner.

An action plan will be suggested to the Francophone Rectors Council (CReF) to review assistance, simplify procedures and reduce allocation delays.

We are committed to doing everything we can to allow students with specific needs to access to our resolutely inclusive and committed University.

Following the recommendations of the Tulkens report and circular 9037 of 18 September 2023 entitled “Prévention et lutte contre le harcèlement, les discriminations et les violences sexuelles au sein des établissements de l’enseignement supérieur et de l’enseignement de promotion sociale en FWB” (“Prevention and the fight against harassment, discrimination and sexual violence within higher education and social advancement education establishments in FWB”), it is necessary to review the operation and visibility of the “Together” unit (2019), which is a system currently under-exploited for fear of bias, the distance of the system from the field on each campus and its very impersonal nature.

We absolutely must accelerate the effective establishment of a fair treatment process for reporting possible situations of harassment or discrimination, managing investigations in the event of a complaint and determining the consequences in application of our regulations.

In the event of harassment or discrimination, the University must quickly take appropriate preventive and corrective measures. Any alleged victim must be able to file or withdraw a complaint of harassment or discrimination without fear of reprisals or threats. In the interest of a fair process, the University must also ensure that it takes preventive and corrective measures if it turns out that the complaint is unfounded, vexatious or was filed in bad faith.

We propose, in close collaboration with the stakeholders concerned, particularly our social partners, to transform the name and nature of the “Together” unit into a real Discrimination and Harassment Intervention Office (BIDHA), present on each University campus.

This office will be a one-stop shop for reporting, initial listening and guidance, by diversifying its access methods (email, in-person, telephone, etc.), providing information on its reporting role, guaranteeing rapid and adequate information, and guaranteeing the care and rapid referral of each victim to the right person.

BIDHA must be a known and trusted one-stop shop for all members of the community. It should be an identifiable and independent place open on each University campus, with an on-call system. Currently, the “Together” cell has one person working half-time. This team will need to be expanded in order to cover all University campuses. Monitoring and evaluation of operation must be organised every six months for appropriate implementation.

In addition, we wish to develop mentoring because it can constitute an interesting avenue to avoid the isolation and psychological or physical insecurity of certain members of our University. This type of system would also be open to doctoral students. Beyond methodological, psychological and social support, mentoring would constitute a preventive measure for the harassment difficulties experienced by some of our scientists. The ability to consult a person other than one’s thesis supervisor would allow freedom of speech, attentive listening as well as a prevention and reporting.

We must also continue our awareness-building training initiatives on all forms of discrimination and harassment to re-establish a climate of psychological safety, respect and tolerance.

We wish to reaffirm our commitment to the safety, mental and physical health and development of each member of our university community..

Our University has joined the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), which proposes a profound reform of research evaluation. As a signatory, we have made a commitment to (1) reviewing and developing our evaluation criteria, tools and processes; (2) committing resources to implement the organisational changes necessary to revise our evaluation criteria; (3) exchanging our practices and experiences to enable mutual learning within and beyond the Coalition; and (4) raising awareness of research evaluation reform and reporting on progress made. Our desire is to become a proactive member of CoARA and implement its recommendations in our internal processes.

We also wish to strengthen multi- and transdisciplinary research initiatives, particularly via the Louvain4 initiatives. The creation of a new Louvain4EDI will constitute a fertile area of research for years to come.

Regarding the supervision of researchers and particularly PhD students and postdocs, we will ensure access to cross-cutting training promoting their professional integration. We will ensure that each PhD student has contact with an academic who is independent of their thesis supervisor, who can advise them in the event of difficulty with their PhD thesis. Mentoring activities carried out by senior researchers should be valued as part of the research evaluation procedures mentioned above. For each PhD student, we will also specify the role played by the support committee in order to guarantee fair and equitable treatment of everyone during the doctoral process within our University. This fair and equitable treatment involves the harmonisation of administrative and financial support offered to all of our researchers (travel, research activities, access to resources, etc.). Difficulties were reported regarding the reception of researchers coming from the South, in terms of accommodation, support and monitoring. We will actively work to find suitable solutions to support these vulnerable people in order to completely fulfil our role as an inclusive University.

We must recognise and prevent professional exhaustion (burnout) as well as exhaustion due to loss of meaning(boreout) by creating working conditions that are fulfilling, inclusive and guarantee everyone’s psychological safety.

We must also protect people who have to carry out their colleagues’ work during the latter’s absences, sometimes for long periods. This is why I want, urgently, to ensure that the administrative and technical framework of our University is complete. Any entity that is understaffed constitutes a risky work environment for those present, who must compensate to assume 100% of the work for which the entity is responsible.

Solutions must be sought and developed with the Human Resources Administration and potential external partnerships. For example, we are in favour of hiring a team of versatile people for administrative support, grouped within a “standby team”, which would be available as reinforcement in situations or periods of overload. We could also explore the possibility of reinforcement at certain times of the year by members of our part-time staff who would like to move to full-time during certain times of the year. We must also review the replacement policy during absences due to long-term illness and ensure career planning (parenthood, illness of a loved one, taking on mandates, etc.).

The well-being and development of the members of our community requires support for the professional trajectory of each staff member through career management and promotions as well as recognition of professional investment and training courses.