Leuven (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Luc Sels ended his 8‑year KU Leuven rectorship (2017‑2025). Séverine Vermeire won 2025’s historic vote with 52%, becoming KU Leuven’s first female rector after defeating Tine Baelmans.
As VRT News reported, Luc Sels stepped down today, August 1, 2025, after 8 years as rector of KU Leuven. He first took the role on August 1, 2017, after a very close vote where he beat Rik Torfs, who had been rector since 2013, by 1,088 to 1,040 weighted votes. Torfs wanted another term, but Sels’ plans for the future convinced enough people to support him.
In 2021, Sels won a second term with little trouble, this time defeating well‑known toxicologist Jan Tytgat. It was the first time KU Leuven held the rector election fully online due to the COVID‑19 pandemic. Sels spoke about his win while wearing a face mask.
Who is Séverine Vermeire, the first woman to lead KU Leuven?
After finishing the limit of 2 terms as rector, Luc Sels could not run again in 2025. 3 people put their names forward: vice‑rectors Tine Baelmans and Peter Livens, who were already part of the university’s team, and Séverine Vermeire, a respected gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Leuven and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine.
In the first round of online voting, Séverine Vermeire came within only a few votes of winning right away. Since no one got a full majority, Vermeire moved on to a second round against Baelmans. From that moment, one thing was clear for the first time in KU Leuven’s 600‑year history: the next rector would be a woman.
“After 600 years, it was about time it was a woman, and I’m very happy about that,”
Vermeire said after her victory.
“Society is very diverse and colorful. We should also reflect that in our university. That’s why it’s an especially important step today that the rector has become a woman.”
In the second round of voting, Séverine Vermeire won with 52% of the votes. She ended more than 20 years of work as a gastroenterologist at UZ Leuven to take on her new role. Before she left, the hospital thanked her in a post on social media, saying that after her last endoscopy and her final consultation, she was hanging up her white coat.
Officials mentioned that they praised her for giving her heart and soul to patients for 22 years. Now she leaves her medical work behind to lead KU Leuven and becomes the first woman ever to hold the rector’s position at the university.
Luc Sels built his whole career at KU Leuven. He finished his master’s degree in social sciences in 1989, when it was still called a licentiate, and earned his doctorate in 1995 on management agreements in the public sector. After that, he started teaching at the Faculty of Economics and Business.
He moved up over the years, becoming a full professor and later the dean of the faculty. During his 2 terms, he worked on making KU Leuven more international, more modern, and more open to everyone. He also guided the university through digital changes and the COVID‑19 pandemic. By the end of his time as rector, he had left new policies and new projects.
