It is with great enthusiasm that I am running for rector. I love this university, the teaching that is top-notch, the brilliant research, the short distance between students and professors and between staff and managers. I want to preserve and strengthen that for the future. My career ... Read further

I rise to the challenge together with a dynamic and young but experienced team of four prospective vicerectors: f.l.t.r. Chris Van Ginneken (Vice-rector for Education and Student Affairs), Nathalie Dens (Vice-rector for Social Engagement and International Policy, Maarten Weyn (Vice-rector for Research and Impact), Steven Van Passel (Vice-rector for Valorisation and Sustainability ).Read further

Our employees, at all levels, are our most important capital. UAntwerp can count on people with a heart for their university, with a great commitment to their job, both in the faculties and in the central and support services. Read further

Our education has already proven its worth. Points of attention for the coming years are monitoring the changes in Flemish education regulations (e.g. hard cut-off, new learning objectives in secondary education), the opportunities and risks that Artificial Intelligence offers and monitoring the balance between the advantages of online education and the added value of campus presence. Read Further

We deliberately choose to change the description of the Vice-Chancellor function "Service" to "Community engagement" because it encompasses a broader and deeper understanding of the institution's role in society. It implies a proactive engagement with and responsiveness to the needs and challenges of society at large. Read Further

Without students, there is no university. Those who enrol do so to get a decent education, and that is what we offer. But being a student is so much more than just getting that degree. We want to offer students opportunities and encourage them to have much broader experiences. Read further

The Research Policy of recent years has been very successful. We can only maintain this trend by further leveraging internal research funds to competitively acquire external research funds. Internally, we can reduce that competition. Read Further

Collaboration, trust and connection are key words to achieve knowledge valorisation from (basic) research, together with industrial partners and societal actors, always maintaining our independence. Read Further

We develop a coherent integrated International Policy with a clear vision of what we actually want to achieve and how to get there. We go for a cross-cutting policy explicitly assigned to one of the Vice-Rectors with a coordinating role that can cut across the usual vertical structures. Read further

Sustainability should be an obvious consideration in our research, teaching, service and valorisation but also in our operations. Transport and energy consumption are the primary concerns in this regard. Read further

As in society as a whole, diversity is also a reality within the large group of staff and students at the University of Antwerp, which we see as an added value. Read further

Academic freedom means that academics are free to choose within their field what questions to ask and how to investigate them. Freedom of expression is a high good. This also applies within the university environment, even if we find some opinions objectionable or offensive. It is a duty of the university, and the rector in particular, to ensure both forms of freedom and to protect staff and students from any pressure that would restrict freedom. Read further

Our institutional organisation assumes a high degree of subsidiarity and thus accommodates the diversity of activities and disciplines, although it also entails a danger of compartmentalisation and fragmentation. In a large organisation like the university, there are inevitably tensions between the central level of administration and the places where core activities are carried out. We want to reconnect the different units of the university more. Read further