The government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) has decided to give itself the final say on the appointment of the president of the Academy for Research and Higher Education, ARES, the support and coordination body for higher education in the FWB.
Under the current decree on the higher education landscape in the FWB, the government appoints the ARES president after obtaining the assent of its board of directors. This, de facto, offers higher education actors the possibility to veto the government’s choice.
In December 2020, a majority of the ARES board had, in fact, blocked the appointment of the former minister-president of the French Community, Hervé Hasquin, to the presidency of the institution.
The arrival of Mr Hasquin had been announced on Twitter by the president of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR), Georges-Louis Bouchez, before the ARES board had even been consulted, and the board had not appreciated the manoeuvre: some administrators felt they had been presented with a fait accompli by the MR leader.
For more than two years, the dossier had therefore remained in abeyance, and ARES still does not have a new president.
However, the recent political crisis surrounding habilitations and masters of medicine in the FWB offered the government an opportunity to move forward on this issue.
The overall political compromise forged last weekend between majority partners Parti Socialiste, MR and Ecolo provides for the abandonment of the principle of assent by the board of ARES for the designation of its future presidents, Education Minister Valérie Glatigny said on Tuesday.
A simple opinion of the board on the candidate for the presidency will now be sufficient, and this opinion will not be binding on the government, which will have the final say.
