Rectoral opening speech academic year 2023-2024

Dear guests

Dear UGent-ers

Let me start by, in turn, extending my own very warm welcome to this, the formal inauguration of the academic year. Most of you know each other, and many of you are also familiar with our beautiful Aula Academica. Nonetheless, the formal inauguration is a special occasion every year. The new year is calling, doubtless with a few surprises waiting for us. We are going to make new discoveries, and new innovations are waiting to happen. But we will also find things to wonder at. We will do the same things as always, and in the same way as we always do. Yet there will also be some differences.

This time last year, I described what Ghent University will look like in 2050. I explained that we know what we want to have by 2050, but we don’t know exactly what the journey towards that will be like. “What steps we still have to take, and what exactly needs to happen, we will find out together”, I said, one year ago.

Every year we discover one part of this journey, And so the question arises: where are we now? Last year, I focused particularly on what Ghent University will look like in 2050. Today I want to focus on what we will do in the coming year to realise that vision, so that in the coming years we can be - and remain - a university that really matters.

We can take daring steps

Over the past years, our university has made visible progress on a number of counts. We have demonstrated that we can dare to take bold steps.

We have introduced an innovative career plan for our professors which values not only excellence in research but also services to teaching and social engagement, by recognising and rewarding these. This vision has also attracted attention both within and also outside Ghent University. We have translated our vision into practical regulations and career paths, not only for professors, but for all university staff.

Is everything totally perfect right now? Have we already achieved everything we want to? No. We have to keep being critical, also with regards to what we are doing ourselves. We have to set the bar high, and this also - indeed especially - applies to policy makers such as myself.

So yes, we can still improve things. The way we offer follow-up and evaluation represents a great deal of work for those responsible. We have to consider whether - and how - we can limit this workload without letting follow-up and evaluations turn into just a formality, but rather quite the opposite. For good follow-up and high-quality evaluations can help everyone improve. And at a university more than anywhere, our ambition must be to avoid complacency and always strive to do our best, as long as it remains within the limits of what is sensible.

Funding our activities

Another policy guideline we are proud of is the recent introduction of basic funding for research.

Many members of staff immediately let us know that they thought that introducing basic funding was an excellent idea. Many also agree with the idea that all professors at Ghent University who meet the agreed criteria for research activities should be able to expect a minimum amount of non-competitive research funding, so that our researchers can spend time on their actual research, rather than competing with each other to apply for research funds.

However, I know we also have colleagues who are concerned that they might receive less funding from the Special Research Fund than they previously received via the competitive BOF (Special Research Fund) funding channels. I understand these concerns and have invested considerable effort into lobbying the Flemish government for adequate funding for universities.

During our celebration for Dies Natalis earlier this year, I went into this matter in some detail, and I still stand behind what I said then. Indeed, the rectors of all the Flemish universities have expressly called for the proper and complete implementation of the existing funding decree. That is also the key message of the memorandum written by VLIR (Flemish Interuniversity Council) with an eye to the elections in 2024, and which the council is currently presenting to political parties and other societal actors. Because we still hope - and even believe - that ultimately, the government really do mean what they say when they state that academic research, higher education, and services to society are crucial elements of our well-being.

I quote here from the VLIR memorandum.

“As a result of consecutive and continuous budget cuts, between 2008 and 2022 universities and university colleges together received 349.5 million euros less in basic funding than they would have been entitled to through the full implementation of the funding mechanism stipulated in the decree.

Of this sum, around 136 million euros can be traced to the period from 2020-2022, (97.6 million through under-indexing; 38.6 million euros through postponement of clicks and growth tracks).”These figures are indisputable, crystal clear.

 And I could quote even more figures.

For the record, these are not just Rick Van de Walle’s figures. I promise I am quoting word for word what you will find in the VLIR memorandum. These figures come from the rectors of all Flemish universities, from all the university managers, financial directors, and from the many employees who have used their skills and knowledge to collect and analyse these figures.

I dare to venture that Ghent University has taken the lead in the debate on funding in higher education. And this is only possible when you can rely on the skills and knowledge of so many employees. Let this then also serve as a testament to the many members of staff in our central administration who have provided me, the managers, and relevant directors with outstanding analyses. I believe the importance of this cannot be overstated,

and in this regard I also wish to call attention here to the action which is being organised by the trade unions on 11 October. I applaud the fact that on 11 October, a demonstration is being organised jointly by all the trade unions with the fundamental aim of calling for the proper and complete implementation of the existing funding decree for all Flemish universities and university colleges. It is up to Ghent University employees and students to decide for themselves if they wish to participate in this protest or not. I myself don’t yet know if I will do so. Let me be honest: I’m not a big one for protests, I feel more in my element when I’m at the negotiating table.

But I do know one thing: the trade union’s demand for adequate funding for universities and university colleges is valid. A very valid demand, even, and I fully support it.

At the same time, I call on trade unions and representatives to ensure they always share correct information, also within Ghent University.

Connection, rethinking and renewal

Dear UGent-ers

The new academic year also brings new perspectives for our central administration. And the key to this future has to be connection, not only within central administration itself but also between the central administration and the faculties.

Let us be honest: all too often within central administration we hear talk of ‘those people in the faculties’, while in the faculties, colleagues refer to ‘the people over in the rectorate’. We have to move away from this division. Perhaps we need to spend more time talking with each another, rather than about each another. There is only one Ghent University, and all the faculties along with the whole of the central administration are part of it. All UGent-ers belong to the university, both staff and students.

The new academic year will be a crucial one for our university. A year that breaks boundaries, a time when we will rethink things and strive for renewal. Een jaar waarin we zullen vervellen, onszelf zullen hertekenen. A year where we want to strengthen existing connections and also develop new ones. Where we want to build stronger bridges between the central administration and the faculties, and where we seek to make Ghent University future proof. And, finally, a year during which we will have to prove that at Ghent University too, in times of necessary restructuring and reorganisation, we can treat our staff and students with understanding and care.

Dear UGent-ers, I want to take this occasion to also make an appeal. Work actively to build this bridge between ‘the rectorate’ and ‘the faculties’. For myself, I have taken on the task - I would even call it a mission - of reinforcing this link. Please also make it your mission to work towards removing obstacles between people and units within our university. Everyone present here today has an important role to play as a bridge-builder, and that means you too. Let us all take on this task together.

The university of the future is a university where everyone contributes to our outstanding teaching and innovative research. A university where we aren’t stuck on separate islands, but we work together, now more than ever. A university where we recognise each other’s expertise, whether in the faculties or the central administration. A university which, above all, is built on trust, combined with responsibility.

Alumni - our most important ambassadors

A university which , in conclusion,, also is outward facing, and seeks to be not only a local but also an international player. A university which trains students and researchers in order to send them out into the big wide world as Ghent University alumni.

Ghent University boasts an estimated 300,000 graduates, here in Flanders and throughout the whole world. These alumni are just as much members of the university as our current students and staff, and they are our most important ambassadors. Their professional success is a benchmark for our study programmes, offering living proof that our teaching and research meet the highest standards nationally and internationally. They are our link to the workplace; they help define curricula within our study programmes, help us find internship placements, and provide topics for master’s theses. They work together with us both on research and providing services. And it is thanks to their efforts - in influential and often leadership positions - that the university has impact, and can help shape our world.

The thing that unites our alumni is a shared memory of their fulfilling student years. Their remarkable loyalty to their alma mater can also be explained by their lingering memories of the drive, the enthusiasm, the dedication, and expertise of their lecturers and mentors. At a significant time in life – the start of adulthood – our students come into contact with critical approaches, academic thinking, and the pursuit of perfection that characterise academic training. A world opens for them, namely the impartial pursuit of truth, of individual intellectual responsibility and perhaps, above all, that of wonderment.

In this way, at Ghent University we work to develop a way of thinking and an attitude that continue to have an impact for many years after graduation. This is the deeper meaning of the catch-phrase I often say: once a ‘UGent-er’, always a ‘UGent-er’.

To a large extent, Ghent University thus fulfils its societal mission by, over the years and generations, having sent out into the world 300,000 graduates who have an outstanding education. Graduates who, regardless of where they work or live, continue to embody the Ghent University spirit of independent thinking and social engagement.

They do so in Flanders and also abroad, both near and far. And that is important. Because in our times, internationalisation is in no way optional. It has become an essential component of our university’s core tasks of teaching and research. Internationalisation plays an indispensible role in properly fulfilling these core tasks. In the year 2023, we can no longer realise our full potential without a strong focus on internationalisation. 

Innovation and internationalisation

And while we’re talking about internationalisation...

Next year, together with a large number of partners, the Flemish government is organising a large-scale festival of innovation and inspiration under the umbrella of 'Flanders Technology & Innovation' (FTI). The festival will be launched in March, shortly before our Dies Natalis, in the Ghent Winter Circus.

I think this is a really excellent initiative and I hope that, following in the footsteps of FTI during the 1980’s and 90’s, this will be the first of many editions. I am also proud that the event will be holding its launch event here in Ghent. This is thanks to many actors in and around the city, but definitely also – indeed to a very considerable extent – to the presence of our university here in Ghent, and thus, indeed, thanks to you, our dear Ghent University community.

What I find less pleasing is the fact that in the 80’s and 90’s, the ‘I’ in ‘FTI’ stood for ‘international’, while now it only stands for ‘innovation’. Please don’t get me wrong - of course I think innovation is important. But now, in 2023, the innovation landscape has become even more international than it was in the 80’s or 90’s, and so I would have preferred for the event next year to be called something like ‘FTI squared’: 'Flanders Technology & Innovation International'. For surely innovation cannot exist without internationalisation. That’s not possible at Ghent University, nor in Flanders. We have to keep an open mind, as much as possible. We are an export region, and a knowledge economy, which means that we live from our talent. In everything we do, we must strive for this ‘I-squared’: innovation and internationalisation.

And the ‘squared’ aspect is something I can say a bit more about with regards to our university. I am delighted to be able to announce that in 2024, thanks to significant funding from the South Korean government, we will be able to open a branch of Marine@UGent on our campus in South Korea. This will serve to further strengthen and expand our campus there.

Marine@UGent represents a unique knowledge cluster: 80 research groups, spread over 10 faculties, and by now including over 500 researchers in various disciplines such as oceanography, marine biology, maritime law, archaeology, social sciences and technology work together on research and development projects within marine sciences.

South Korea is a peninsula with a huge coastline and a great deal of marine biodiversity, which is particularly valuable for high-quality marine research. Through Marine@UGent, under the leadership of professors Colin JANSSEN and Jana ASSELMAN, Ghent University draws on many years’ experience in research within the field of maritime sciences and technology. And the fact that the wide-ranging expertise and the excellence of Marine@UGent will now form the basis for a newly-established research institute on our campus in South Korea is very special. I am quite convinced that this initiative will strenthen not only our activities in relation to our Ghent University Global campus, but also the impact and image of our university as a whole.

Another field I wish to draw attention to is that of artificial intelligence.

‘How can we evaluate students fairly now?’; ChatGPT does it for you!’’; ‘AI is better at thinking than you!’’; ‘The time of universities is over!’; 'AI is taking over from us!' are some of the claims one hears.

For sure, no one doubts that artificial intelligence is a game changer. But I am convinced that the changes to the game, as it were, do not necessarily mean that we are doomed - in fact, far from it.

It is clear that AI is here and it will not disappear. AI is not something we can simply run away from. It is giving rise to a powerful and exciting technological revolution that can drastically improve our lives and help solve numerous challenges.

We find ourselves at the very beginning of the AI-revolution. As a university we must actively take account of its possibilities (and limits) within our policy and regulations. AI is a powerful tool that we must understand, exploit, and integrate into our activities.

Our university-wide elective course on Artificial Intelligence is a step in the right direction, but I believe we can go even further. How do all our teaching and research activities relate to AI? This is a question we have to take seriously, because the impact of AI will be profound and pervasive. It is a question that we will only be able to answer if we involve all stakeholders: staff, students, the workplace, partners with whom we work, and national and international governments.

We not only need to understand how AI works, but also how we can use it to identify new possibilities in various domains, ranging from healthcare to the environment, from art to sciences, from economics to philosophy. We have to implement AI in an ethical and responsible manner, taking into account matters of privacy, equality, and social justice. Step by step. On the basis of scientific insight.

Our Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences will make efforts to develop research on artificial intelligence in healthcare. And rightly so. Let me quote from the faculty’s policy plan: “The potential of AI within healthcare cannot be ignored. It offers endless possibilities to keep improving patient care, increase efficiency, and cut costs”.

This fits perfectly with our mission in society, which demands that we do more than simply understanding AI or making use of it. Our mission in society is not just about dealing with AI but also about shaping it. We have to ensure that AI works better, that it becomes safer and more reliable, and that it improves things not only for us - academics and knowledge centres - but also for society as a whole. That has to be our ambition. And we can do it!

Conclusion

A flourishing future for our university, with innovations in research and teaching, and with central administration and faculties that work more closely together. die dichter bij elkaar staan With more collaboration, also across borders. Let us enter this period of change with open hearts and open arms.

Together, we will build on our successes and strive towards excellence in teaching, research and service provision.

Ghent University can and must look to the future with a great deal of trust.

Inauguration of the academic year

All that remains for me to do is to declare the 2023-24 academic year officially open.

May it be a year full of connections,
a year that brings us new opportunities
and a year in which we work together to construct
our shared future.

Rik Van de Walle
Gent, 22 September 2023