Uniservitate 2025 conference: Service-Learning at KU Leuven

On Wednesday 2 April 2025, several members of the Faculty of Law of the Université Catholique de Lille attented the ‘Uniservitate Western-Europe-North Conference 2025: Five years of transforming education through Service-Learning’, organised at KU Leuven, in Belgium. This event marked the fifth anniversary of the Uniservitate global programme, dedicated to the integration of Service-Learning in higher education.

Service-Learning is a teaching approach that combines academic learning with involvement in the field. In this way, students develop their skills while responding to concrete needs identified in the community, strenghtening their critical thinking and citizenship. It is based on a logic of reciprocity: the beneficiaries receive useful support and the students come away transformed in their relationship with justice, law and human values. It is a process of mutual growth, which also enriches the teachers in charge of these projects.

A time for international exchange

The conference offered an opportunity to share the achievements of the Uniservitate programme around the world. Speakers from various institutions presented their projects and results, each sharing their experience and solutions to local challenges, including François Prouteau, Deputy to the President-Rector in charge of Humanities at the Université Catholique de Lille, Caroline Delabre, PhD-Assistant in charge of Solidarity projects at our Faculty of Law and Antoine Six, in charge of the Bus de l’Accès au Droit project. Another example, Sophia Opatska, Vice-Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, explained how such practices can help to strengthen solidarity and democratic culture in the context of war. Other speakers also took an enriching look at the positive impact of Service-Learning at their local level.

Symbolic awards

At the end of the day, a moment was devoted to recognising the initiatives that had won prizes at the Uniservitate Awards 2024, including the Bus de l’Accès au Droit, which had won a Special Mention last year. Each winner received a symbolic gift, such as flower seeds, illustrating the idea of seeds sown through Service-Learning. These seeds represent the projects that, over time, grow and bear fruit, contributing to a lasting impact for students and community.

Continued momentum

This conference has inspired our collective thinking and strengthened our determination to make Service-Learning a sustainable educational tool. By discovering the wealth of experiences elsewhere, we left inspired and determined to develop our existing initiatives and come up with new ones. At the Faculty of Law of the Université Catholique de Lille, we believe in the power of commitment in the service to society, as a vehicle for human, intellectual and civic education.