4 minute read
CROSSING THE RIVER BY FEELING THE STONES
FACULTY NEWS
“Stay alert, ready to respond to the needs of companies and demands from society.” That is Professor Frank Baert’s message to the ten-year-old Faculty of Engineering Technology. That much has been achieved in a decade is beyond doubt. However, the speed at which technology evolves and the world changes requires a new mindset. Vigilance and adaptation are crucial.
The Faculty of Engineering Technology is the result of three radical processes of change in higher education in Flanders: the association of the then university colleges around a university, the academisation of the Engineering Technology programmes and their eventual integration into the university. In each of these processes, KU Leuven played a pioneering role with Professor Baert as copilot. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the KU Leuven Association and from 2012 to 2020 academic director of the integrated programmes in Ghent and Leuven. Professor Baert was also rectoral adviser Integration. Since 2020, he has been policy advisor Lifelong Learning and, in that role, closely involved in the development and launch of Continue, the Lifelong Learning network of the KU Leuven Association, accounting for more than 1,000 continuing education courses online and at 23 locations in Flanders and Brussels.
Profile
Together with then vice-rector Karen Maex, Professor Baert saw from the outset the unique opportunity of integration to raise the profile of the programmes involved. “There were fears that the practical focus would be endangered, contact with industry would weaken and research yet to be launched would be threatened. Well, by focusing on clearly defining the profile of the programmes and research in the Science, Engineering & Technology Group, all parties have emerged strengthened from the integration. Housing the integrated programme in a separate faculty structurally anchored the Engineering Technology profile in the university.”
In terms of research, the integration into the research departments of the Science, Engineering & Technology Group has created an unprecedented dynamic on the campuses of the new faculty. In ten years, the number of PhD researchers evolved from 12 to over 500.
According to Professor Baert the integration had opened the scope widely. “The profiling strengthened the identity of the programme but did not narrow it down either. On the contrary, the clear profile made it possible to create cross-links and fully focus on innovation. Internationally, integration has provided a strong boost. Every campus offers at least one Englishlanguage programme and in Leuven, where you can also follow all engineering courses in English, there are already more international first-year students than Belgian ones.”
Assets
Once you put a profile in the market, you must keep working on it, Professor Baert believes. “It comes down to nurture and play off assets. I am thinking of the regional interconnectedness and cooperation with the community (business, care, ...). Other examples are the approachability, the good first-line guidance of students and the quality of the lecturers. They are an integral part of the uniqueness of both the faculty and the campuses.”
“Strong profiling should not be an obstacle to cooperation,” Professor Baert continues. “A multi-campus faculty is precisely based on complementarity and cooperation. The great progress made in research is the result of the intertwining of the research groups.”
Incidentally, cooperation need not be limited to the Science, Engineering & Technology Group. “I am more than ever in favour of strengthening the ties with e.g., the social sciences and art schools. As technology penetrates further into all domains of society, engineers need to broaden their field of vision and radius of action. The faculty must actively respond to this. In Ghent, a good start has already been made with the ‘creative makers’ that wants to connect creative disciplines through new technologies.”
Preparation
Professor Baert prefers not to venture into distant future predictions. “In an uncertain world, the one we are heading into, we are subject to surprises and upheavals: economic, geopolitical but also technological, just think of the rise of generative AI. We can learn a lot from high-tech companies and organisations in terms of being alert and adapting to change along the way. To be clear, alertness and adaptation do not really exist as qualities of their own. They presuppose a tool kit of back up preparedness: people, ideas, possibilities, attitudes, and equipment that allow you to construct solutions quickly. A Chinese proverb is very apt in that context: ‘Crossing the river by feeling the stones’. The faculty profile contains the stones for crossing safely the river of uncertainty.”
Yves Persoons
