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Student Council KU Leuven has been founded over 10 years ago. For the occasion we collected some highlights of each academic year from since Stura’s establishment until now. Click on the academic year and find out more about what the Student Council accomplished and/or organised that year.
Student representation at KU Leuven has a rich tradition. In the 1960s, a variety of seperate councils emerged to deal with student representation. The Social Council, one of the best-known councils, represented students within student services as ‘co-government’. It also dealt with broader social issues, organised demonstrations and actions, and grew enormously in popularity as a result.
In addition to the Social Council as co-management, the ‘Kringraad’ was established. This council acquired a voice within the academic bodies of KU Leuven. Besides the Kringraad, numerous other councils were concerned with culture, sports and international students, among others. In May 1969 the umbrella student council ASR (General Student Council) was founded to unite all councils, without loosing their independency. In 1986, ASR dissolved and LOKO (Leuvense Overkoepelende KringOrganisatie) was established in its place. The councils continued to work independently until 2005, after which they were centralised within LOKO.
| Chair | Claudia Löwik |
| Vice-chair | Andries Verslyppe |
| General Administrator | Veronique Beyls |
| Campus Coordinator | Gert-Jan Sprangers |
| Board Executive Biomed | Oliver Van Oekelen |
| Board Executive HUM | Charlotte De Wilde |
| Board Executive SET | Mathias Anthonissen |
| Education Council | Jan-Baptist Lemair Marijke Vanderschot Matthias Meynen Christof Abspoel Nathalie De Beukelaer |
| Diversity | Thomas Cliquet Kenny Dekeyzer Nanxin Sun (sem 1) |
| International | Andreas Frans An-Sofie Thonnon Sander Beelaert (sem 1) |
| ICTS | Gust Verbruggen |
| External affairs | Michaël Rosmane Stefanie Demedts |
Students at KU Leuven used to live and learn mainly on one campus, notably Leuven. You took classes in Gasthuisberg, visited student bars on the Old Market and lived in dorms on the outskirts of town. University life happened in the same village, on the same island. Student representation in a variety of fields was then done through one centralised organisation, LOKO.
That simplicity came to an end in the 2013 – 2014 academic year. A lot of professional master’s programmes at Flemish colleges became academic master’s programmes. This evolution meant that all over Flanders former university colleges continued to sail under the flag of a university. As a result, we switched to a ‘multicampus model’. Consequently, since the 2013-2014 academic year, a student at KU Leuven no longer necessarily studied in Leuven.
Whether you study Business Studies in Antwerp, Architecture in Brussels or Law in Leuven, as long as you follow an academic programme at an institution of the KU Leuven Association, you are officially a KU Leuven student. This has its consequences when important decisions are made at the top of the university.
The old representation model had seen its best days. They had to look for a new structure to give students a full voice on every campus. It was decided to split LOKO into a campus council and a university-wide student council. Student Council KU Leuven (Stura) was born. Since then, Stura represents all KU Leuven students, regardless of whether they study in Leuven or elsewhere and whether they are Flemish or international students.
On 27 September 2013, our very first substantive General Assembly was organised. As there were still some positions open in our new student council at the time, this was directly the first major elective GA.
On this day, the first president, vice-president and general administrator were elected. Alongside this, the Pecuniary Control Committee (PCC) was also completed. This committee examines whether Stura’s budget is properly implemented and checks the financial operations.
Furthermore, some files were already discussed at this first GA: adjustments to the electoral regulations, a proposal for the GA’s meeting rhythm, proposals for improving campus operations and the organisation of Stura’s first educational congress were discussed.
On 16 November 2013, Stura organised its first education congress. With an accessible and low-threshold congress, Stura aimed to put relevant and pressing education topics on the agenda for students, professors and policymakers. The first theme chosen was flexibilisation, a topic that the four candidate rectors from the previous year very often mentioned and on which they had (sometimes divergent) opinions.
As a ludic protest against the underfunding of universities, the Stura team built a wooden auditorium in the courtyard of Pope’s College on 1 April 2014. Former Rector Torfs was present at this ”pop-up auditorium” the following day to engage in conversation with about 50 students: he too felt that universities were receiving too few operating grants from the Flemish government.
More info on this topic can be found in this VRT-article (NL).
| Chair | Andries Verslyppe |
| Vice-chair | Nathalie De Beukelaer |
| General Administrator | Veronique Beyls |
| Campus Coordinator | Anneleen De Geest (sem 2) |
| Board Executive Biomed | Claudia Löwik |
| Board Executive HUM | Charlotte De Wilde |
Board Executive SET | Lieven Verswyvel |
| Education Council | Marijke Vanderschot Pieter van den Berghe Jeroen Grouwels Thomas Doms Floriane Hemalsteens (sem 1) Anneke Veldman (sem 2) |
| Diversity | Michiel Peeters Brecht Vanackere |
| International | Koen Demaegd Andreas Frans |
| SLO | Bart Tuts |
| ICTS | Joris Gevaert |
| Communication | Andreas Waets Gust Verbruggen (sem 1) |
| External affairs | Anneke Veldman (sem 1) |
The first meetings of this year took place during ‘s Meiers 5-midweek. At the time, this was the traditional opening of the representation year together with LOKO. the midweek took place this year at the Youth Centre ‘Malou’ in Balen. Besides the meetings, there were also several formation sessions and leisure activities, including a cantus.
In Leuven, as well as in Ghent, Brussels and Hasselt, students marched through the streets with torches on 5 November 2014 to show that they remained concerned about cuts in higher education. In Leuven, this march was organised in collaboration with LOKO, under the slogan ‘no students out in the cold!’.
Stura and LOKO argued that the planned social funding cuts were making higher education unaffordable for many (future) students. They argued that, moreover, this was done at the expense of the vulnerable scholarship student.
The organisations feared that alma meals, rents, study support, affordable bicycles as well as student initiatives such as the 24-hour run, representation work and orientation activities would suffer.
In Leuven, the torchlight parade started at Ladeuzeplein with around 300 students, after which a few speeches were also given and the atmosphere was more than present.
Fun fact: a year and a half later, the cuts the students were protesting against here were reversed by former Education Minister Hilde Crevits.
On 28 February 2015, Stura organised its second education congress, this time around ‘(re)orientation towards, in and from higher education’. The congress consisted of a panel discussion, several topical and discourse sessions and concluded with a debate. Several internal and external speakers attended the congress, including former Rector Rik Torfs.
During Stura’s second year of operation, it was 10 years since the Flemish Parliament approved the participation decree, formalising student representation by decree. Accompanied by the head of student policy and the president of the Student Council of the VUB, Stura and the faculty representatives busily discussed the then current student participation and its future. All this with a nice appetiser in hand.
| Chair | Joris Gevaert |
| General Administrator | Tine Exelmans |
| Campus Coordinator | Stef Maelstaf |
| Board Executive Biomed | Nathalie De Beukelaer |
| Board Executive HUM | Elly Suys |
| Board Executive SET | Andreas Waets |
| Education Council | Jasper Daniëls Ewoud De Sadeleer Pieter Jan Heymans Kristien Borremans |
| Diversity | Martha Verfaillie Maxim Hellyn |
| Sustainability | Thomas Doms |
| International | Kristoffel Bauweraerts Jonas De Broyer Nathan Reinders |
| SLO | Pieter Jan Heymans Jens Warrie |
| ICTS | Pieter Van den Berghe |
| Communication | Kevin Seurs Florian Smeyers |
| External affairs | Axel Vanmeulder |
Since the beginning of Stura, weekly meetings were held in Auditorium Lacroix, an old auditorium with few comforts, no internet and poor temperature control. Nevertheless, the auditorium had a certain charm and the hemisphere lent itself perfectly to discussions where everyone could see each other. However, the auditorium was demolished this year. To say goodbye to the auditorium, a real alumni event was organised for all representatives in the form of a cantus.
There was a need for a new meeting place, and MTC was an inviting choice because of the technical facilities available. Other advantages that could not be ignored were that it was close to ‘s Meiers (and De Werf) and you could always walk outside without calling the central dispatch. The internet did sometimes cause distractions and it got quite cold in winter, but of course perfect does not exist. To this day, Stura’s General Meetings still go on at the MTC.
To get the recruitment campaign off to a good start, Stura organised a faculty bar tour at the end of March 2016. They did not do this alone, they were joined in this by then-rector Rik Torfs, who visited Recup, HdR, Fakbar Letteren and Politika Kaffee with the student representatives. Around midnight, the rector went home and the tour continued to Doc’s bar, the Sportzak and ‘t Elixir.
Saturday, 27 February 2016, Stura organised its third annual education congress. Within the theme of ‘educational innovation in higher education’, forms of work and evaluation as well as financing innovation were put on the table.
Filip Dochy ( pedagogue and researcher) gave a presentation on efficient teaching, after which the president of Stura entered into a dialogue with him on the practical feasibility of innovative methods in higher education. Peter Lievens (then dean of Science) brought up the topic of permanent evaluation, after which Mario Gielen (UGent), Martijn Roelen (Educational Policy Department KU Leuven) and Veerle Hulpiau (KU Leuven) presented working methods such as peer assessment, the function of workplace learning and the station test.
This section was followed by two debates. The first debate juxtaposed proponents of oral examinations with advocates of written testing. The second debate discussed the financing of innovations in higher education with Pedro De Bruyckere (pedagogue), Rik Torfs (then rector of KU Leuven), Kathleen Helsen (then Flemish MP CD&V) and Elisabeth Meuleman (then Flemish MP Groen).
On 6 May 2016, after just under a year of meetings at the MTC, the first GA with livestream was organised. This way, all campuses could finally participate without making the far trip to Leuven. Some PPW representatives even followed the GA from a conference in Portugal. However, remarks still had to be given via the representatives who were physically present.
| Chair | Marie Vanwingh |
| Vice-chair | Pieter Van den Berghe |
| General Administrator | Florian Smeyers |
| Campus Coordinator | Joris Gevaert |
| Board Executive HUM | Diede Michiels |
| Board Executive SET | Enyo Vanmontfort |
| Education Council | Elise De Sadeleer Emma Moormann Jasper Daniëls Kevin Seurs Sam Geysens |
| Diversity | Margot Van den Broeck |
| Sustainability | Tom Merlevede |
| International | Roeland Van Roosbroeck Sophie Tielemans |
| Culture | Amber Florizoone |
| SLO | Pieter Jan Heymans |
| ICTS | Toon Deburchgrave |
| Communication | Sophie Vervynckt |
| External affairs | Axel Vanmeulder |
| Institutional review | Joris Gevaert Nathalie De Beukelaer |
A leitmotif throughout this academic year was Plan POC. The aim was to strengthen the COBRA process by strengthening the Programme Committee (POC) functioning. To this end, Stura received impulse funding that allowed all kinds of initiatives to be conceived. Plan POC consisted of three phases: thinking about the ideal POC, questioning how the POCs currently worked and drawing up and offering a training and support offer around POC working, including a training weekend, the forerunner of the current FO weekend.
As icing on the cake, there was the night of the POC:
During this grand awards show in the Museum Hall, student representatives could nominate programme directors, POCs and Open Educational Meetings for a chance to win all kinds of prizes for their efforts during this year. Drinks and sushi were generously provided and the prizes were awarded by a jury that included Rector Rik Torfs.
This was the first year for Stura in which rectorial elections were organised. Although the 2015-2016 team had already done a lot of work, the preparation was far from complete. The election process was long and turbulent, resulting in several complaints from the parties involved. Eventually, Stura decided to resign from the election committee and file a complaint against the committee chairman. Rector Luc Sels eventually narrowly got elected after the academic council ruled that there were so many complaints from both parties that they cancelled each other out, so to speak.
Although the exam survey is now a fixture, Stura organised its first exam survey in January 2017. It was then also distributed on paper in the various learning centres, which caused a lot of work: the questionnaires all had to be printed (50 questions) in thousands of copies. Reviewing and digitising them afterwards, so that the results could be merged with the digital survey conducted across all campuses, was also a hassle. The exam survey did however prove to be an immediate success: the results were presented at the education council and were still often referred to in policy.
Besides the bustle of the rectorial elections, this year KU Leuven also had to undergo an institution review, for which Stura also delegated mandataries. The campus coordinator largely took care of this, with further work being divided among a number of other mandataries. Stura came out of this review very positively and was called a great added value for the university.
| Board Executive SET | Axel Vanmeulder |
| Education Council | Toon Deburchgrave Robin Panassié Dennis Gelders |
| Diversity | Margot Van den Broeck |
| Sustainability | Gregg Smits |
| SLO | Jorn Hendrickx Jolien Van Walleghem Emma Moormann |
There are several universities worldwide where some learning centres are open 24/7. A discussion had been going on for some time whether this would also make sense at KU Leuven. Stura took it to the test and kept Agora open for a full night on 18 December 2017. Brownies and chocolate milk were sold at small prices for the studying students. Proceeds from that night were donated to Fund Dieter for ‘De Warmste Week’. The night attracted quite a crowd, and students who left were soon interspersed with new ones.
In May 2018, some representatives of LOKO and Stura travelled to Nijmegen (NL) to exchange ideas and best practices on student representation with the University Student Council of RU Nijmegen and the Allgemeine Studierendenauschuss of the University of Cologne (DE). One topic that was very present was how co-governance for stureps was organised at the three universities. There was so much to discuss that there appeared to be too little time to do everything on the programme.
Due to fewer candidates and some mandate holders resigning early on, Stura worked with a smaller team this year. In doing so, they could count on a lot of support and interaction from the FCBs. Due to a lack of Board of Director (BoD) positions, these tasks were divided among a few mandate holders (Board Executive SET, two Education Council mandate holders and an SLO mandate holder). The chairman of the GA changed a few times during the year.
More info on this can be found through this Veto article (NL).
| Chair | Robbe Van Hoof |
| Vice-chair | Sander Vanmaercke |
| Campus Coordinator | Ilse Paepe |
| Board Executive Biomed | Lotte Delemarre |
| Board Executive HUM | Dennis Gelders |
| Board Executive SET | Thibaut Deneus |
| Education Council | Lisa Van Eyken Tuur Decaluwe Marie Huyskens Hannes Dewaele |
| Diversity | Marnik De Bont |
| Sustainability | Reine Spiessens Julie Gaillard |
| International | Stijn Carpentier Astrid Maerevoet |
| SLO | Audrie Gaillard Jorn Hendrickx (sem 1) |
| ICTS | Mathieu Seutin |
Stura started this year with a team with little previous Stura experience. For example, the entire BoD was made up of people who were in the FCBs last year. To strengthen operations and make good use of the experience of the Academic Council (AC) mandataries, a new body was created between the BoD and the General Board: the Daily Board, in which the BoD and AR mandataries joined forces.
On 4 and 5 April, 17 student representatives from six UNA partners were invited to a conference in Leuven. Some workshops were organised to give a picture of how participation works at each university. The partners were also introduced to the city of Leuven and the different FCBs.
What is UNA Europa? We explain it to you in this and this video.
At the request of the various FCBs, an extra training day for Student representatives was organised in the second semester. This allowed them to go deeper into certain matters with the experienced Stureps, but also allowed the new Stureps to be more prepared for the next academic year.
International students, both those on exchange and those completing a full programme at KU Leuven, were less involved in representation than Dutch-speaking students. Specific difficulties they faced throughout their time at the university were previously partially underexposed. That is why this year, in cooperation with International Office, the campus councils and Pangaea, Stura set up a sounding board for internationals: the Assembly for International Students (AFIS). To this day, Stura continues to organise this several times a year in Brussels and in Leuven.
| Chair | Lotte Delemarre |
| Vice-chair | Robin Kelchtermans |
| General Administrator | Maarten Claes |
| Board Executive HUM | Dennis Gelders |
| Board Executive SET | Klaas Collin |
| Education Council | Lisa Van Eyken Loïc Vanderput Toon Robberecht |
| Diversity | Rianne Brinksma |
| Sustainability | Daan Smets |
| International | Alexander Clark Thor Deyaert |
Typical for this academic year was the coronavirus, which at its peak shut down large parts of social life and the university from March 2020. Just before the lockdown, there was a final memorable GA where only one representative per FCB was allowed to attend for safety. Online conferencing became the new standard and later brought the permanent option of hybrid conferencing, which is here to stay in Stura’s future.
In preparation for a new edition of the Night of the Programme Committee (POC), Plan POC was also revived. This had two major facets: a series of events aimed at educating POC members and a communication plan to raise POC’s profile. On 5 November 2019, there was a ‘kick-off’ event in the form of a training evening with a subsequent reception. Plan POC and the associated event Night of the POC were discontinued in March 2020 because of COVID-19. The anticipated awards were still presented in the new digital format adopted by the university.
During this academic year, Stura, LOKO and Veto temporarily moved to Minderbroedersstraat 10 (Rega X), while student centre ‘s-Meiers was completely renovated.
| Chair | Klaas Collin |
| Vice-chair | Dennis Gelders |
| Campus Coordinator | Charlotte Devriese |
| Board Executive Biomed | Kristof Gielis |
| Board Executive HUM | Toon Robberecht |
| Education Council | Anke Maes Pepijn Nollet |
| Diversity | Sustainability | Karim Rega |
| International | Alexander Clark Helena Baeyens |
| UNA Europa | Alexander Clark |
To better engage and represent the various campuses, additional efforts were made to build better campus collaboration. The first steps towards a campus consultation model were taken: a space where all campus representatives could share ideas, concerns and stories. Due to Corona, the move to an online space was evident and allowed campuses across Belgium to easily participate.
Through much effort and perseverance, Stura finally managed to make the culture card available to all students on all campuses in 2021-2022. Previously, the culture card was only available to KU Leuven students in Leuven.
| Chair | Pepijn Nollet |
| Board Executive Biomed | Ben Cools |
| Board Executive HUM | Toon Robberecht |
| Board Executive SET | Marieke Laenen |
| Education Council | Tom Konings Ruben Kindt Giel Ketelslegers |
| Diversity | Claire Van de Vorst |
| Sustainability | Liesa Vosch |
| International | Christiana Galani Robin Kokot Liliia Samchuk |
| UNA Europa | Christiana Galani |
| Culture | Dennis Gelders |
| Student Services (Stuvo) | Marieke Laenen |
| EM | Nore Verbelen |
| ICTS | Ruben Kindt |
| Institutional review | Toon Robberecht |
For years, it had been a big Stura dream to transform the old, ruinous barn in the garden of ‘s-Meiersstraat 5 into a new separate building: the ‘koetshuis’. In 2021-2022, the time had finally come and we moved from Minderbroedersstraat 10 back to our familiar home.
Several years before, a working group (WG) reform had existed to critically review the operation of Stura and make adjustments where necessary. Many things within the functioning of Stura had been a habit for years, but were not yet fixed on paper. This operating year, that changed: several key points in the operation were formalised and finally enshrined in the HR. These included the distribution of votes in the GA, the Daily Board and the election procedure for mandate holders. A big step forward in terms of transparency and a lot more obvious for future Stura members.
| Chair | Toon Robberecht |
| Vice-chair | Hannelore Durt |
| General Administrator | Vincent Hofmans |
| Campus Coordinator | Matthias D’helft |
| Board Executive HUM | Marte Polspoel |
| Board Executive SET | Stijn Lapere |
| Education Council | Eline Gonnissen Andreas Vandingenen |
| Diversity | Yune Paepe Stijn Oosterlinck |
| Sustainability | Liesa Vosch |
| International | Christiana Galani Robin Kokot Niklas Angelov (sem 1) |
| UNA Europa | Marieke Laenen Mascha Graupe |
| Culture | Dries Paesen |
| Student Services (Stuvo) | Helène Vrielynck Tom Konings |
| EM | Aurélie Van delm |
| ICTS | Ruben Kindt Rune Vercauteren |
This year, Stura invested in a major expansion of its lending service to ensure that events of FCBs, campus councils and student unions could be better supported.
The stock of glasses was amply replenished and everything from percolators to party tents to chip bowls was provided to ensure that a lack of equipment could no longer hamper the organisation of events. You can find the current offerings of the lending service here.
Every fortnight, Stura meets with its General Assembly, on Friday evenings from 6pm to 9pm. To diversify this experience a bit and make it extra cosy here and there, themed GAs were created.
For instance, we invited family and friends of GA members to the Family GA, we met in our finest attire with a glass of cava or kidibul in hand during the Gala GA, and we showed off our extra colourful side at the Pride GA.
By always combining the important and necessary with the playful and fun, the GAs became something to look forward to!
At the start of this operating year, the Campus Coordinator had resolved to revive the phenomenon of campus visits and visit every campus outside Leuven.
With Stura goodies in hand, NMBS ticket in his pocket and Google Maps behind him, he set off into the Flemish and Brussels educational landscape, in search of all KU Leuven’s famous campuses.
Often, the FCBs involved or members from the GB also joined him on campus visits. This created an even greater connection between the various representatives.
During the campus visits, all kinds of matters were discussed; about how the organisation was doing, what was going on on campus and of course what the needs were that Stura could address. Ideas were also exchanged with the academic administrators, campus chairs and campus deans.
Creating connectivity between the different campuses is the ultimate goal of campus visits. Therefore, the aim is for them to become a regular feature of the Stura operation every year.
On 2 March 2023, Stura organised a big event on sustainable education and campus life together with Green Office and LOKO. Vice-rector of sustainability Govers was also there to give a welcome speech. It was a success! There was a lot of input, which provided inspiration for a presentation at the Sustainable Education Network and the Sustainability Council, for Q&A videos with technical services and for several notes. Participants also reported feeling positive, inspired, enthusiastic, engaged, connected and fulfilled after the event.
After a multi-year break, we made time again this year to organise some activities for our alumni. Studying is a unique period in our lives, one that we like to look back on nostalgically. The time as a student representative in Stura’s GA is then even more special. We from Stura like to offer the chance to revisit it and bring old friends back together.
We kicked off the alumni event with a reception in ‘t Rectoraat, Stura’s polyvalent space in the renovated Koetshuis. It was a nice reunion between old sturep friends.
For the second activity of this working year, we warmed up our vocal chords once again for a good old Stura cantus in the Recup.