Tine Baelmans and Severine Vermeire have made it through to the second round of the process to elect a new Rector at the country’s old university, KU Leuven. This means that soon for the first time in its 600-year history KU Leuven will have a female Rector. The third candidate Peter Lievens was eliminated in the first round of voting.
For the first time in its 600-year history Leuven University’s next Rector will be a woman
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In order to become Rector a candidate requires an absolute majority of the votes cast. As none of the 3 candidates standing obtained more than 50% of the votes cast, a second round will be needed.
In the first round Severine Vermeire won 944 votes, around 45% of the total. Tine Baelmans was 2nd with 592 vote. This is 27.5% of the total number of votes cast. Peter Lievens (photo above middle) came third with 571 votes (27%).
Workload and transparency
Severine Vermeire is currently the research coordinator of the Biomedical Sciences group. She has presented herself as being a "breath of fresh air" and the "grassroots candidate". During the campaign she focused on reducing the workload at the university and giving employees more trust.
Tine Baelmans is currently Vice-Rector with responsibility for education policy, a post she has held since 2017. Previously she was Vice-Rector with responsibility for diversity and student policy. During the election campaign, she stood out for her positions on collaboration with Israeli academic institutions and the war in Gaza and for her call for more transparency and dialogue in the governance of the university. Tine Baelmans also made a bid for the rectorship in 2013 but was eliminated in the first round.
The second round of voting will take place from 8am on 19 May to 4pm on 20 May. The new Rector’s mandate begins on 1 August.