That at least was the claim of Marc Waer, rector of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) last week, announcing the completion of reforms he described as “the BHV of the university”. It may not be quite that: the changes are not exactly earth-moving, though they are at least esoteric.

Waer has succeeded in gaining approval for a new organisational structure that will give added weight to the university’s management committee. The committee, made up largely of non-university staff, was set up specifically to take a management view of the university’s affairs. Proponents of the management committee argue that the KUL is an institution with an annual budget of €1.7 billion, employing 18,000 people, making it the equivalent of a very sizable enterprise.

The week started with a letter to Waer signed by 45 professors which attacked the proposed changes. The professors wanted to know whether they had some say in the running of their university or did decisions simply filter down from the top. They pointed out that a stronger management committee went against pledges made by Waer in his election campaign last year, when he stated that management should never take precedence over the university’s key roles of research and education.

Waer was elected last year following the resignation of Marc Vervenne, who had received a negative evaluation from the university’s governing body. Under the rule-changes agreed last week, this evaluation process will be scrapped.

“I tried to see them all personally to explain the organisational structure, but they didn’t take me up on my offer,” Waer said of the protesting professors. “That’s a shame, but it’s fine; 45 dissatisfied professors out of 1,000 isn’t so many.” In an op-ed piece in De Standaard last week, professor of international economy Paul De Grauwe compared the reforms to the way the old Soviet Union was run.