UCLouvain
Université Catholique de Louvain | |
File:LogoUCL.jpg Seal of the University of Louvain | |
Latin: Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis | |
Motto | Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom, Seat of Knowledge) |
---|---|
Type | Private Catholic |
Established | 1425 |
Endowment | 360 million EUR |
Rector | Bernard Coulie (2005- ) |
Students | 21,647 |
1,371 | |
Location | , |
Campus | Louvain-la-Neuve, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert |
Affiliations | Coimbra Group<br\> Académie universitaire Louvain<br\> Special partnership with the Catholic University of Leuven |
Website | www.uclouvain.be |
Data as of 2005 |
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university, and a successor institution to the oldest university in the Low Countries. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels. It has full university status.[citation needed]
History
For the history of the university prior to 1968 go here.
The Catholic University of Leuven, based in Leuven ("Louvain" in French), 30 km east of Brussels, provided lectures in French from 1835, and in Dutch from 1930. In 1968 the Dutch-language section became an independent Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, which remained in Leuven, while the French-speaking university was moved to a greenfield campus, Louvain-la-Neuve, 20 km south-east of Brussels, in a part of the country where French is the official language. This separation also entailed dividing existing library holdings between the two new universities.
With the democratization of university education already stretching existing structures, plans to expand the French-speaking part of the university at a campus in Brussels or Wallonia had been quietly discussed from the early 1960s, but it had not been anticipated that the French-speaking section would become an entirely independent university and lose all its buildings and infrastructure in Leuven. The first stone of the new campus at Louvain-la-Neuve was laid in 1971, and the transfer of faculties to the new site was completed in 1979.
Campuses
While the main campus of Université catholique de Louvain is based at Louvain-la-Neuve, there is however a small campus in Brussels, in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, which until recently was called "Louvain-en-Woluwe" (the authorities of the UCL tend to prefer nowadays to refer to it as "UCL-Brussels"). This satellite campus hosts the faculty of Medicine of the university. The campus is served by Alma station on line 1B of the Brussels Metro.
Prospects
According to a 2007 agreement, the Université Catholique de Louvain should absorb three small French-speaking catholic colleges: the Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) located in Namur, the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL) located in Brussels and the Facultés universitaires catholiques de Mons (FUCAM) located in Mons and Charleroi. Negotiations started in September 2007 and they should lead to the creation of a new university to be called Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). ( The campus might be identified as UCL/Brussels, UCL/Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL/Mons, UCL/Namur and UCL/Charleroi). The four universities are already part of a common group, the "Academie Louvain". Within this group, member universities have coordinated their masters programmes in the fields of economics, management, political sciences and sciences.
Faculties
- Faculty of Theology (theology)
- Faculty of Philosophy (also known as the Institute of Philosophy, ISP)(philosophy)
- Faculty of Law (law)
- Faculty of Economical, Social and Political Sciences.(economics, management , sociology, anthropology, political sciences, communication, journalism, demography, development studies).
- Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (Arts and Humanities)(languages and literature, history, history of art, theatre, archeology)
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (psychology, education)
- Faculty of Science (biology, chemistry, physics, geography, mathematics, computer science)
- Faculty of Engineering (engineering)
- Faculty of Applied Bioscience and Engineering (bio-engineering, agronomy, environmental studies)
- Faculty of Medicine (medicine)
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (pharmacology)
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences (kinesiology, physical education)
General credit
The Université catholique de Louvain educates around 22,000 students (2003) in all areas of studies, from theology to biology and from nuclear physics to law. It has educated a large part of Belgium's elite and is still considered, with its Dutch-speaking sister, as a centre of excellence in many fields. In 2006, it was ranked 76th in the world universities ranking established by the Times higher education supplement (24th in Europe). It is connected to Brussels by a train service, and the new town and campus is unusually architecturally interesting.
Notable alumni
For pre-1968 alumni go here.
- Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, a mathematician who proved the prime number theorem
- Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin, a minerologist and geologist
- Christian de Duve, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1974, for his discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell
- Jean-Pierre de Launoit, businessman.
- José J. Fripiat, a chemist, and laureate of the 1967 Francqui Prize
- Geza Vermes, religious historian and translator into English of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- HRH Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant, wife of HRH Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant and future Queen Consort of Belgium
- Camilo Torres Restrepo, Colombian priest and guerillero.
- Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian Dominican theologian, founder of Liberation Theology.
- Adolphe Gesché, theologian
- Philippe Van Parijs, philosopher and economist
- Christian Arnsperger, economist
- David Payne, politician
- Rafael Correa, the newly elected President of Ecuador
- Maurice Anthony Biot, Belgian-American physicist and the founder of the theory of poroelasticity.
- Edgar Sengier, director of the Union Minière du Haut Katanga
- Páll Skúlason, philosopher and former Rector of the University of Iceland.
- Jacques Taminiaux, philosopher, 1977 laureate of the Francqui Prize
- Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou, private secretary of the King of Belgium.
- Dyab Abou Jahjah, Lebanese-Belgian political activist
See also
- Louvain School of Management
- Hoover Chair
- Louvain-la-Neuve
- List of universities in Belgium
- University Foundation
- Science Parks of Wallonia
External links
- Official web site of Université catholique de Louvain
- IAG's official website. IAG is the affiliated business school of UCL and is part of the CEMS network of leading European business schools.
- The Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park website