Flemish universities must get the necessary means to remain appealing

An interview with Dr. Koen VERLAECKT, Secretary General of the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR)

What are the missions of the VLIR? The Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (“VLIR”) is the National Rectors’ Conference of the five Dutch-speaking universities in Flanders: KU Leuven, Ghent University, University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Hasselt University. As such, it is the perfect platform to foster decision-making on common policies. The latter regard varied issues such as quality assurance in higher education, diversity, internationalization, European R&D, science communication, doctoral schools or tech transfer. At the same time the VLIR actively promotes and defends our universities’ interests as a privileged partner of the public authorities.

What are the main facts and figures of Flemish universities ? The academic year 2018-2019 witnessed a total of 120 300 students enrolling in our five universities, a 1.81% increase compared to the previous academic year. The continuous growth of the number of students puts tremendous pressure on teaching and research infrastructure. In 2018 our universities together employed 25 906 VTE staff and they generated a total income of €2.4 billion. €149 million comes from internationally competitive funding sources, whereas €247 million was generated by contract research.

What were the highlights of the VLIR in 2019? The Flemish Government approved a substantial increase in the budget for the Specific Research Funds (“BOF”; + €35 million) and the Industrial Research Funds (“IOF”; + €20 million). The adaptation of the legislative framework put more emphasis on interuniversity collaboration, interdisciplinarity and internationalisation, without compromising on excellence. The budget increase allowed our universities, for the first time ever, to launch a €30 million call for proposals to be submitted by interuniversity consortia.

In June 2019 the Rectors, together with the Young Academy, officially pledged their renewed commitment to fight against implicit gender bias in academia. In August they also adopted a set of recommendations to implement a more systematic human rights policy in their international contacts. In 2019 our universities also devoted quite some energy on influencing the policy debate in the run-up to the May elections. Finally, they participated in the outgoing state visits by the King and the Queen of the Belgians to South Korea and Luxemburg.

How do you assess the interactions between the VLIR and the Flemish government in matters concerning higher education policy? The interactions with the Flemish government are very positive: meetings are organized on a regular basis with the Minister of Education who is very open to the concerns raised by universities… even though the final decisions remain in her hands. We count on the next Minister to continue this open and constructive approach. Which policy proposals do you put forward as regards higher education and research policy? Our memorandum for the 2019 parliamentary elections stresses the need for a substantial increase in the budget for infrastructure investments, way beyond the current annual grant of c. €31 million we receive from the Flemish Department of Education. We consider these as productive investments, which generate long-term benefits for our society, as opposed to consumptive investments. The outgoing Flemish government invested €500 million extra in research and development. We urge the incoming government to continue this growth path towards 1% of GDP public expenditure on R&D. © VLIR

Internationalization is another priority. Flemish universities have been extremely succesful in their bid to become part of the first wave of Networks of European Universities. We ask the government to co-fund their participation. Finally, we actively advocate a reduction of administrative obstacles in attracting the best and brightest researchers and students from across the world to Belgium. The partial implementation of the EU Single Permit directive is creating a number of avoidable hiccups, leading to processing times that are simply unacceptable to brains from abroad.

From left to right: Prof Luc Sels (KU Leuven), Prof Caroline Pauwels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Dr Koen Verlaeckt (VLIR), Prof Herman Van Goethem (University of Antwerp), Prof Rik Van de Walle (Ghent University), Prof Luc De Schepper (Hasselt University) © VLIR