Our gender policy

Exemplarity of the rectoral team

In 1953, the first female student entered FUNDP (Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix). 68 years later, at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year, a woman will head the university for the first time. She will be Annick Castiaux, our first female rector. Knowing how important it is for girls and women to have role models to help them project themselves far into the future, we can only applaud this news.

As a PhD in physics, Annick Castiaux offers us a double role model. Not only does she demonstrate that it is possible to occupy positions of power as a woman, but she also encourages girls and women, through her background, to undertake studies in the field of science and technology.

The gender committee

Since 2014, the University of Namur, like all French-speaking universities in Belgium and the F.R.S.-FNRS, set up a Gender Committee. The committee has three main missions covering all aspects of gender issues specific to its institution: informing, raising awareness and networking. It contributes to the implementation and development of gender policy within its institution. They follow the policy defined by the Vice-Rector.

More information about the gender committee composition and missions here...

Gender contact person (PCG): Juliette Linard de Guertechin - Email: genre-diversite@unamur.be

Best practices and actions

• Gender Equality Plan: UNamur has adopted a gender equality plan for 2021-2022 to remedy the major gender imbalances within the institution.
• Guide to inclusive communication: practical recommendations with examples for both written and spoken communication.
• Inclusion of transgender people
• Reconciling professional and private life: a brochure providing a practical and educational overview of all the parenting aids introduced by the legislator or our University.
• Promoting gender equality at UNamur: actions and conferences on the state of equality between women and men.
• Gender reports: since 2014, the University of Namur has been a signatory to the Gender Contact Person Agreement with the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. From 2022, the reports will be biennial.

Collaboration with equality stakeholders

• Implementation of the PHARE plan to fight moral and sexual harassment and assaults on students
• Master of specialisation in gender studies: this course in gender studies pools the expertise of the six universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in this field, by creating or federating specific and original teaching units.
• Participation in the Women and Science Committee
• Participation in the Guide for inclusion of transgender people in higher education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation
• Participation in the European UniSAFE project
• Collaboration with CHEFF
• Collaboration with the City of Namur, the public prosecutor's office and the Namur police force
• Collaboration with the "Namur'elles" platform of the City of Namur

This part of our website is currently under construction.  Meanwhile, you can access more information about gender (in French) here...

A sustainable campus is one of the 5 main objectives of the Univers2025 strategic plan. More information (in French) here...

The university must be exemplary in terms of sustainable development, in its three dimensions (economic, social and environmental), by the way it manages its infrastructures and its heritage for a sustainable campus in form , as well as, as a teaching and research institution, by its commitment to actively contribute to the environmental transition sustainable campus in substance.

More information on the University of Namur sustainable pages...