This is Bas Van Heur, professor and specialist in urban studies. Do you also want a job where you can make a difference?
On how the VUB offers its students the opportunity to develop a professional career.
Growing up near the University, later studying there, building a career and ultimately becoming co-founder of a highly promising spin-off: it doesn't happen to everyone. From an early age, the VUB has played a key role in Aushim Koumar’s life, both personally and professionally.
“I grew up just a stone’s throw from the VUB. As a kid, I spent a lot of time walking and biking on the university grounds. The campus has been modernised a lot since then.
The fact that I grew up near the VUB played an important role in my decision to enrol there, and I ended up staying for the next eleven years. For the first two years as a Bachelor student, then a three-year Master, then four years working on my doctoral research and finally, two years as a postdoc researcher, setting up a VUB spin-off.
What's so unique about the VUB is the close bond that you have as a student and a colleague with people throughout the entire organisation: from professors and teaching assistants to administrative staff. That closeness is crucial for your development and it creates a unique atmosphere in which to study and work.
My promoters Niels De Temmerman and Tine Tysmans, for example, have always been a huge inspiration to me, both professionally and personally. They taught me everything about the secular and humanist values of the VUB; about critical thinking, without prejudice or superstition. There was also always time for fun: for example, I have vivid memories of the teambuilding days from that era.
Niels also convinced me to do my doctorate on constructions based on scissor technology. That ultimately led to the founding of the VUB-spin-off Konligo, together with Niels, Tine and a business developer, Baudouin Hubert. Our goal is to apply our knowledge and experience to create things such as efficient emergency solutions; so it's very much in line with the humanist spirit of the VUB.
Of course the launch of Konligo means that I will be spending less time at the VUB. But I still hope to be able to drop in once in a while to impress upon engineering students that they can make a difference. The VUB is such an important part of my life; I definitely want to keep it that way.”
