De Ketele studied general, technical and professional education from 1964 to 1967 and earned degrees in psychology in 1972 and in education in 1973, both from the Université catholique de Louvain. In 1977 he received a doctoral degree with a speciality in observation and evaluation. In 1991 he became an ordinary professor at the Université catholique de Louvain, where he is now professor emeritus. In 1994, he was appointed to the UNESCO chair in education sciences at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, which he assisted in establishing;[1] he spent 16 years in Senegal.[2] He has also been a visiting professor at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, at the Faculty of Medicine at Paris 13 University, at Pierre Mendès-France University in Grenoble and at the University of Fribourg.