Professor Mieke Van Herreweghe served as Vice-Rector of Ghent University from 2017 to 2025.

She graduated from Ghent University in 1987, and obtained a Master’s in Linguistics at University College Dublin a year later. After a mandate as a research fellow at the Research Foundation – Flanders, she earned her PhD in Language and Literature: Germanic Languages at Ghent University in 1996, where she later also became a professor. In addition to research on historical English and English as a foreign language acquisition, she has mainly focused on linguistic aspects of Flemish Sign Language.

Throughout her career at Ghent University, she has also been committed to academic cooperation with the Global South (particularly in Africa). She progressed from project staff member and project leader to member of the Board of VLIRUOS, becoming its chair in September 2025. In addition, during her vice-rectorship, she also served as chair of the Human Rights Policy and Dual Use Research Committee at Ghent University.