Ludger Wirtz has resigned from the Board of Governors of the University of Luxembourg.
Government commissioner to the university Léon Diederich confirmed the information, which was first reported by the Luxembourg Times. He said the resignation is linked to an email Wirtz sent to the Luxemburger Wort criticising its coverage of developments at the university. In the message, Wirtz referred to isolated cases of frustration within the institution.
Wirtz is a physics professor at the University of Luxembourg and one of two representatives of the University Council elected to the Board of Governors, the university’s governing body. According to information obtained by RTL, he had recently been appointed, alongside four other governors, to the steering committee overseeing the external audit commissioned by the university. Rector Jens Kreisel and government commissioner Léon Diederich are also members of the committee but serve primarily in an observer role, Diederich told RTL.
When Kreisel announced the audit to a parliamentary committee in January, MPs were anything but pleased. Lawmakers questioned the independence of the external audit, noting that the university was funding it and had drafted the terms of reference for the auditor. The composition of the steering committee may now add to those concerns. If members of the committee are perceived as having a preconceived bias, the independence of the audit could again be called into question.
Researcher Imen Derouiche is also a member of the steering committee. Like Wirtz, she sits on the Board of Governors as a representative of the University Council. Her election as governor was not straightforward. According to the minutes of a meeting held on 7 November 2023, no candidate secured enough votes after seven rounds of voting.
A discussion followed in which student representatives said they had been contacted by the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Finance (FDEF) and asked to support Derouiche. Several participants later described the rector’s intervention during the discussion as “angry” or “threatening”.
In the meeting notes, the student representative mentioned that three student representatives present at the meeting abstained from voting for Derouiche as a member of the FDEF faculty had asked them to support her. The rector said this faculty could only be represented by its dean, present during that session, and who had not given any voting instructions. Katalin Ligeti, the FDEF dean, confirmed this.
But RTL has since seen copies of messages in which Ligeti herself and another professor speaking for her had contacted the students and attempted to influence the vote. She presented Derouiche as a faculty candidate who would bring diversity to the board and connect more with the students than with the teaching staff. But during the vote, the students realised there was no faculty candidate.
At any rate, Derouiche was competing against the candidate who was running against Ligeti’s wishes for a place on the university council, whose promotion had been refused. The promotion procedure was one of four cases currently being reviewed as part of legal action against the university for allegedly blocking or delaying promotions.
When asked, Derouiche told RTL she had not had any information about any such discussion prior to the elections, saying she was surprised when the students raised the issue during the vote.
The university council, an elected assembly of teaching representatives, administrative staff and students, must now choose someone to replace Ludger Wirtz for the board of governors. The next meeting is 24 March, council president Georg Mein told RTL.
Government commission Léon Diederich told RTL reporters: “it’s important that only voting members participate in this meeting. No observers.” By this, Diederich means that no representatives of the rectory, no deans or directors of interdisciplinary centres, or even the delegate for equality, Skerdilajda Zanaj, should be present at the meeting, despite the latter promoting the open letter for support from the university community. Although many of these are members of the university council due to their roles, they are not elected and have no right to vote.
In a press release issued to the university community, the rector said the university council had completed an “independent review” of the work and study environment. The results are to shared with the community on 17 March and will also be shared with external auditors. Georg Mein told RTL “it is not as though fundamental shortcomings were found, but there is always room for improvement”. Mein said he wasn’t surprised these results would be shared with external auditors, as they would normally have access to everything anyway.
The board of governors will meet this Friday to discuss the situation. Diederich shared his plans to bring up the circumstances around Derouiche’s election once more.
RTL was unable to reach Ludger Wirtz for comment via telephone nor via email. Ligeti and the university’s press office also declined to comment.
