Accessible student facilities

The recent reform of Stuvo is now being fully implemented across various domains and will require consolidation and follow-up in the coming period. The development of Stuvo hubs at different locations is a very positive step and may serve as a model for replication elsewhere. KU Leuven’s student services already serve as accessible gateways to support and provide more than just practical assistance. They create the necessary social and material conditions for mental well-being, social integration, and equal educational opportunities. These efforts deserve recognition.

However, it remains important to ensure that students, wherever they study at KU Leuven, have equal access to appropriate support. Unfortunately, this is not yet guaranteed on all campuses, which calls for expanded psychological support, study guidance, and financial assistance. We also opt for an inclusive approach, with specific initiatives for certain target groups where needed. Wherever possible, we prefer group-based support, always using a layered approach embedded in and aligned with local service offerings.

To that end, we will appoint a locally anchored coordinator, across faculties, who works closely with student associations, welfare services, and local authorities. We aim to reduce the workload for staff and improve student access by offering a clear overview of all available services via a digital portal. We want to reach all students by developing active communication campaigns tailored to diverse student groups.

Wellbeing-oriented support

Students need sufficient breathing space to balance their studies with other activities. This is especially the case when studies are combined with work, health issues, or caregiving responsibilities in their private lives. To support them, we offer administration-light options for instructors and exam boards to take individual circumstances into account with minimal extra effort.

Neurodivergent students, students with disabilities, students from diverse backgrounds, or those dealing with physical or mental health issues regularly require well-being-oriented help and support. It is crucial to provide timely assistance, and for this reason, we will appoint well-being ambassadors: staff or students trained to recognise signs of stress, dropout risk, or help-seeking, and who can refer individuals to the appropriate support services. This peer-based signalling function not only ensures early detection but also contributes to a sense of belonging in the learning environment.

Additionally, we must strengthen first-line care to ensure waiting lists remain manageable. We favour a differentiated offering that builds on strong first-line services, with low-threshold access to study coaching, stress management, or psychological support. For second-line care, we will continue to pursue strategic partnerships with external (private) providers, partly for reasons of financial feasibility. This layered approach promotes efficiency and broad coverage without placing disproportionate pressure on internal resources.

Connection and clear communication

An inclusive and supportive learning environment requires not only accessible care but also clear communication and social cohesion. We therefore aim to expand the socio-cultural offering across all campuses as a driver for community building and participation. Students who feel socially connected are more resilient, experience less stress, and achieve better academic outcomes (see e.g., Schmiedl & Kauffeld, 2023). That’s why we invest in accessible socio-cultural infrastructure, collaboration with student associations, and programming that reflects diversity, internationalisation, and campus identity.

Student associations play an essential role here. They bridge the gap between formal support services and everyday student life. Associations contribute to social integration, provide informal networks of support, and can act as accessible points of contact for well-being issues. We will strengthen their role in onboarding, community building, and inclusive events, and provide structural support to ensure that smaller or less visible associations can also realise their social impact. Co-design research shows that collaboration between students and policy teams leads to more effective and widely supported well-being strategies on campuses.

At the same time, we will make communication about student services clear, user-friendly, and multilingual. From day one, students must know where to find support, both digitally and in person. We will provide a central digital access point for all services, supported by active information campaigns, onboarding modules, and communication through channels that students actually use.

Student housing

We must continue working to ensure affordable student housing in Leuven. That begins with strengthening cooperation with the city: we call for more efficient permitting for student housing and aim to use KU Leuven land and real estate for new housing projects, ideally in collaboration with private investors where feasible. At the same time, we seek more transparency in the student housing market through a public rent overview with information about the price-quality ratio of available accommodation. We plan to extend this approach to our other campuses, in collaboration with higher education partners in those campus cities. We also aim to strengthen support for vulnerable students by offering mediation in conflict situations. Finally, we want to broaden the conversation: affordable housing is not a side issue, it is a fundamental condition for equal access to education.

Ensuring work-life balance

We aim to foster a working environment in which staff can grow professionally without their well-being being put under strain. A sustainable work-life balance positively impacts productivity, creativity, and retention. Overtime should not be a structural expectation and should be limited to exceptional or temporary commitments. We promote flexible working hours, hybrid working models, and autonomy in planning, allowing employees to align their professional responsibilities with personal needs and life phases. We also must ensure that those caring for young children, caregivers, part-time staff, or employees with other external commitments do not take on too much and are protected from overburdening themselves. This flexibility, however, must not undermine the effective functioning of departments or services, which is why we continue to offer targeted training for individuals and teams. Topics include boundary-setting, the impact of time management on wellbeing, and supporting teams and managers in promoting wellbeing.

Embedding the right to disconnect

The rise of digitalisation has made it possible to work anytime and anywhere, but permanent availability must not become an implicit norm. We recognise the right to be unreachable outside working hours as an essential aspect of our work organisation. This right to disconnect not only reduces the risk of stress and burnout, but also boosts productivity, retention, and healthy working relationships. This is especially important for more vulnerable groups such as young parents and caregivers, for whom permanent digital availability can be disproportionately burdensome.

Teams and supervisors are encouraged to make clear agreements about availability, to be explicitly discussed during onboarding, evaluations, and potentially in awareness sessions.

Fewer, shorter and more efficient meetings and meeting-free weeks

A frequent concern at our university is the high number of meetings. While structural consultation is often necessary for good governance and departmental function, this issue deserves attention. Four clear proposals can already create time and mental space: i) discontinuing unnecessary working groups, ii) holding shorter meetings, iii) providing guidelines to adjust meeting culture, and iv) organising at least one university-wide meeting-free week per semester.

To move quickly on complex files, we often form new working groups, a practice that has reached its limits. We aim to drastically reduce the number of working groups. If broader consultation is needed, we will first use existing bodies and only set up a new, temporary working group when absolutely necessary, with limited membership and a predefined scope and duration.

Meetings can become unnecessarily long due to late agendas or uneven levels of prior knowledge among participants. Lengthy discussions may also be inefficient when a topic is not yet ready for decision-making. Alongside strict start and end times, clear agreements are essential. We will offer practical guidance and coaching on effective meeting practices, including asynchronous communication, clear agenda objectives, and using the question “Is this meeting necessary?” as a standard check.

University-wide meeting-free weeks will be transparently scheduled in the academic calendar and implemented throughout the university. During these weeks, staff can focus on teaching preparation, research, admin tasks, or reflection without interruptions.

Coaching and guidance

Individual and team-based support is crucial for boosting mental resilience. KU Leuven already offers coaching, workshops, and support pathways, including modules on stress management, time management, conflict mediation, communication styles, and burnout prevention. These are particularly valuable for early-career researchers, supervisors, PhD candidates, and staff in transition, but they benefit everyone. Team coaching is available to enhance team dynamics or address internal tensions. Staff can join these programmes either voluntarily or at the suggestion of a supervisor.

Though the existing programmes are of high quality and widely accessible, many staff members are still not reached. Given limited resources, we will evaluate the offering and focus on efficiency and impact, especially when it comes to reaching various target groups. Removing barriers for staff from migrant backgrounds, those with neurodivergence, disabilities, or chronic illness is essential.

Wellbeing check for new processes

All new policies or administrative procedures will be systematically assessed for their impact on workload. This “wellbeing check”, inspired by the concept of an impact assessment, will be integrated into the development of projects and policy proposals. Faculties and central administrations will work together to create templates and checklists that ensure the check is efficient and straightforward, avoiding added workload. Student participation will also be included when processes affect study feasibility or experience. This ensures that improved efficiency does not come at the cost of job satisfaction or stakeholder support.

We will also critically assess the landscape of working groups, committees, and consultation bodies. Dormant or redundant groups will be merged or eliminated, and new groups will only be created if they bring clear added value. This will free up time for meaningful collaboration and ensure policy development remains feasible and inclusive. This approach supports a culture of structural simplicity and thoughtful innovation.

Career paths for ZAP: balanced and inclusive

In line with the recently introduced Appreciation Framework for Quality Academic Work, we will refine the evaluation criteria for ZAP promotions, with more explicit attention to teaching, educational innovation, societal impact, team science, and valorisation. We do not need to develop an entirely new framework but rather deepen the existing model through faculty-level implementation and broader monitoring. Cross-faculty and inter-group coordination is an important priority. To enhance the quality of evaluations, we will include external reviews via peer panels or visits from other faculties or universities. This approach promotes objectivity, avoids local blind spots, and aligns with international academic assessment practices. We also want to better prepare candidates for promotion to full professor by offering a leadership development programme, including modules on strategic thinking, financial management, team dynamics, and diversity. Structured leadership development is effective in fostering vision and inclusive leadership in academic settings and is a key criterion in the final step of an academic career.

Teaching, research, societal impact, and internal engagement will be considered in balanced proportions. Promotion profiles will be formalised for each function type and career phase, with room for personal strengths and contributions. Candidates must have early insight into expectations, procedures, and review moments. To this end, evaluation committees will receive clear frameworks and training on bias-free and inclusive assessment. Feedback will be delivered in written, structured form, with a focus on growth. This fosters trust in the evaluation system and encourages staff to invest in their academic role over the long term.

In developing these evaluation frameworks, we draw inspiration from examples at other research-intensive universities, such as the de LERU position paper: “A Pathway towards Multidimensional Academic Careers - A LERU Framework for the Assessment of Researchers”. The core objective is to reward and recognise a diversity of profiles and contributions, all of which are equally important to the overall success of the institution, be it in research, teaching, or public service.

There is no doubt that teaching quality deserves full consideration in the promotion process. Therefore, we will develop a standardised and simple assessment framework for teaching impact that includes both quantitative and qualitative elements, such as peer feedback, didactic innovation, involvement in curriculum development, and learning outcomes. The new framework should be lightweight, aligned with the faculties, and embedded in all evaluation procedures so that teaching performance is structurally and fairly recognised rather than assessed on an ad hoc basis. The goal is to achieve a balanced system that values both the impact and quality of teaching without creating extra workload.

Career development for ABAP: perspective and support

A sound career policy for early-career researchers is of paramount importance. Providing clarity about career prospects is critical. That is why it is essential to inform early-career researchers as soon as possible about available career paths and to provide accessible support. Various pathways should be explored, both within and beyond the university. The YouReCa Career Center already initiates programmes to clarify career trajectories for postdocs, including paths to ZAP positions, research-focused careers, or roles in the ATP staff categories, as well as careers outside academia. These efforts are crucial and must be further supported. Such trajectories should include attention to portfolio development, career coaching, alumni and industry networking, better identification of transferable skills, and more. Importantly, early-career development must not be limited to research; there must also be recognition for teaching, mentoring, valorisation, and project coordination. We are implementing a digital career portfolio that will automatically populate with relevant roles and experiences, such as teaching evaluations, mentorship, involvement in valorisation, and project coordination. We also encourage young researchers to invest in their own professional growth, for example, through career coaching, external training, or international placements.

Mentoring and coaching play a key role at this career stage. Both formal and informal mentoring enhance professional development and satisfaction and increase the likelihood of successful career transitions and confidence within the academic field. Inclusive mentoring is especially crucial for underrepresented groups, international researchers, or first-generation academics to prevent feelings of isolation and foster professional networks. To this end, we aim to structurally promote (intergenerational) mentoring within teams and research groups.

Appreciation and growth opportunities for ATP

With the development of a new Function Framework 2.0, KU Leuven has outlined a career structure for ATP staff, allowing for career growth based on competencies, experience, and expanded roles. This framework must be fully implemented over the coming years. Job descriptions will be updated, with explicit attention to identifiable growth trajectories and promotion opportunities. This includes introducing senior levels in job classes where they do not yet exist. Functional growth should be structurally recognised for all staff members.

Promotion policies must be as uniform as possible across the entire university. Well-prepared performance and career development reviews between ATP staff and department heads are key, and support will be provided to facilitate this. These conversations should openly address job performance and career progression, including promotion expectations.

Feedback is also essential. A thriving organisation requires a culture of giving and receiving feedback. Ideally, feedback should not be limited to hierarchical lines, peer feedback is often the most instructive. Departments and work environments must foster open dialogue, and supervisors should be receptive to 360° feedback. Training for both supervisors and staff, preferably at the team level, will be crucial here.

Socially just recruitment and promotion of staff

Currently, the university's staff does not fully reflect the diversity of wider society. Women remain underrepresented in higher academic positions; professors of colour are rare; and PhD students from ethnic minorities or first-generation students are still few. Neurodivergent staff often face significant barriers in the neuro-normative academic environment, leading to unnecessary attrition. Our support, policy, and administrative staff often share very similar profiles. Yet we know that diverse teams perform better and generate more impact, even in science, and that role models are crucial for inspiring future generations.

To attract, support, and retain talent from diverse backgrounds, we need a recruitment and promotion policy that puts social justice at the centre. In addition to existing measures, and in line with the LERU reports (2023) and the JA-VLIR declaration on ethnocultural diversity (2023), we will take further initiatives. We will evaluate and strengthen the Focus+ programme, which offers one-year research scholarships to students from minority groups to gain research experience and prepare for doctoral trajectories. We will implement sustained monitoring of the demographic characteristics of staff across categories to assess which efforts positively impact recruitment and advancement of underrepresented groups. This will happen not only at the university level but also at the more granular levels of faculties and departments.

We will also establish a university-wide solidarity fund to cover replacements resulting from various types of leave and illness. This fund will allow for a gradual return to work without overburdening the individual or their team. In exceptional cases, it can also be used to fulfil contractual obligations not covered by limited research funds (e.g., extending a contract after long-term absence, paying social security during maternity leave for externally funded staff, etc.).