New VUB rector will be a woman

Jonckers is VUB’s vice-rector of student policy and is, according to Brussel Deze Week, a confidant of current rector De Knop. Jonckers announced that she wants to focus on the democratisation and internationalisation of education. Although she is a computer scientists, she is not a proponent of a “virtual university” with a dominant role for digital communication, as she feels a university should remain a lively meeting-place, she said.

Caroline Pauwels is a professor but also director of the research centre iMinds-SMIT – which specialises in the study of media and communication technologies. She said one of her goals as rector would be dealing with the excessive pressure on researchers to publish, as this has a negative impact on the social role of the university.

Pauwels also said that VUB should become more diverse, just as the society in Brussels is becoming more diverse. Staff and students should be more involved in the policy-making process and contribute more to life in the capital in general.

The first woman to ever hold the post of rector at a Flemish university was also at VUB: Els Witte held the post from 1994 to 2000.