What is the structure of student representation at KU Leuven?

Are you curious how all matters concerning education at the university and more specifically our faculty are decided? Then be sure to take a look here!

Student representation on four levels

At the educational level you will find the (P)OC's, these are the bodies where course- and subject-specific matters are discussed such as the examination form, the amount of course matter, the amount of tasks, the objectives of the course and so on. This is of course where many of the student representatives sit in order to defend the student position.

At faculty level, there are many more different bodies that are all responsible for different aspects of university life. At this level, OOR comes into play: we delegate the student representatives within all these bodies and thus ensure that we are represented at faculty level. You have the faculty POC, which is responsible for education-related matters that are important for all programs of the faculty. In addition, you have the faculty board: this is the board of the faculty and it has final responsibility for all matters that are decided within our faculty. Other bodies are the Extensive Faculty Board, the Faculty Council and the four Faculty Working Groups, each of which discusses one specific topic: sustainability, internationalization, communication & outreach or diversity.

The group level is an intermediate level between the university and the faculty. The university is divided into three so-called groups: the science and technology group (our group), biomedical sciences and humanities. At group level, too, matters are decided that are relevant for all faculties within the group in the so-called Group Board.

At the university level you have a lot of organs that are responsible for decisions that are relevant for the whole university. The two most important here are the Academic Council, the body with the highest decision-making power within our university, and the Education Council, the meeting that advises the Academic Council on education-related matters. The Student Council (Stura) is the organization that ensures that students are represented within all these bodies. They gather the views of all faculties at the General Assembly of Stura where OOR defends the position of the Faculty of Science.

Apart from these four levels, there are also the departmental councils and the departmental boards. Within the departments, matters are decided on investments for new buildings, personnel policy is worked out here and all other financial matters are also discussed here. Student representatives are also present here!