| Catholic University of Leuven | |
|---|---|
| Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | |
 | |
| Latin: Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis | |
| Motto | Sedes Sapientiae (Latin) |
| Motto in English | "Seat of Wisdom", or "Seat of Knowledge" |
| Established | 1834 / 1970 |
| Type | Independent/Free catholic university |
| Endowment | 950 million EUR |
| Rector | Mark Waer (2009-2013) |
| Staff | 8,871 |
| Students | 36,923 |
| Doctoral students | 3,677 |
| Location | Leuven, Belgium |
| Campus | Leuven, Kortrijk |
| Affiliations | Coimbra Group LERU |
| Website | www.kuleuven.be |
| Data as of 2009 | |
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven listen (help·info) (in short K.U.Leuven) is the Flemish offshoot of the Catholic University of Leuven founded at Mechlin in 1834 with the name Catholic University of Mechlin. Centrally located in the historic town of Leuven in Flanders, the K.U. Leuven is officially a Dutch-speaking institution. With 36,923 students in 2009-2010, the K.U. Leuven is also the largest university in the Low Countries. The Catholic university of Leuven is a major contributor to the development of Catholic theology.
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven also has a campus at Kortrijk, formerly known as Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Afdeling Kortrijk (KULAK).
General description
The K.U.Leuven is a strongly research-oriented university. Among its many accolades is to be reckoned among the top universities of Europe. In the 2009 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) university ranking, the K.U.Leuven was ranked 65th in the world and 21st in Europe, making it the highest ranked university from Belgium in either category by a significant margin.
In the academic year 2009-2010, 36,923 students were attending classes at the 14 faculties of the K.U.Leuven, 5,078 of whom were foreign students, many of whom were able to follow courses offered in English. Most courses, however, are taught in Dutch. The K.U.Leuven is a member of the Coimbra Group (a network of leading European universities) as well as of the LERU Group (League of European Research Universities). Since August 2009, the university has been led by Mark Waer who replaced former rector Marc Vervenne. The Belgian archbishop, André-Joseph Leonard is the current Grand Chancellor and a member of the university board.
The K.U.Leuven is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, under her traditional attribute as 'Seat of Wisdom', and organizes an annual celebration on 2 February in her honour. On that day, the university also awards its honorary doctorates. The seal used by the university shows the medieval statue of the Sedes Sapientiae, Leuven, in a vesica piscis shape.
In Flanders, the K.U.Leuven is Catholic, whereas the University of Ghent and the University of Antwerp are officially neutral on issues of religious/philosophical orientation, and the Free University of Brussels is Freethinking. However, nowadays these classifications are less relevant than they once were. Students and staff tend to choose a university rather for pragmatic reasons - such as the quality of education, the distance to the campus or the opportunities offered - than purely for religious or philosophical reasons.
History
In 1968 tensions between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities led to the splitting of the bilingual Catholic University of Leuven into two "sister" universities, with the Dutch-language university becoming a fully-functioning independent institution in Leuven in 1970, and the Université Catholique de Louvain decamping to a greenfield campus site in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Pieter De Somer became the first rector of the K.U. Leuven.
In 1972 the K.U.Leuven set up a separate entity, "Leuven Research & Development" (LRD), to support industrial and commercial applications of university research. It has led to numerous spin-offs, such as the technology companies Option and Metris, and manages tens of millions of euros in investments and venture capital.
On 11 July 2002 the K.U.Leuven became the dominant institution in the "K.U.Leuven Association"
Library
When the university was split, those books that could not be divided otherwise (e.g. according to the wishes of the benefactors who donated them) were divided as follows: those with an odd-numbered shelfmark stayed in Leuven, while the even-numbered ones moved to Louvain-la-Neuve. This gave rise to the widespread myth that every other volume was separated - splitting up runs of journals and volumes of encyclopedias - but since such series each had a single shelfmark this was never in fact the case. The Central Library alone now owns about 1,300,000 works.
The K.U.Leuven's Faculty of Theology library is among the most comprehensive in the world.
Faculties
- Faculty of Theology
- Institute of Philosophy
- (Extraordinary) Faculty of Canon Law
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Business and Economics
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Faculty of Arts
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
- Faculty of Science
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
- Faculty of Medicine
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences
Interfaculty and interuniversity institutes
- Centre for Translation Studies
- KADOC Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society
- Energy Institute
- Centre for European Studies
- Centre for Science, Technology and Ethics
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT
- Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council
Notable alumni
- Leon Bekaert (b. 1958), economics, businessman
- Paul Bulcke (b. 1954), economics, businessman
- Jan Callewaert, commercial engineer, founder of Option N.V.
- Mathias Cormann (b. 1970), Belgian-born Australian Senator
- Jo Cornu, civil engineer
- Joan Daemen (b. 1965), cryptographer, one of the designers of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
- Noël Devisch(b. 1943 ), agriculture
- Julien De Wilde (b. 1967), civil engineer, businessman
- Gabriel Fehervari, (b. 1970) law, businessman
- Georges Meekers (b. 1965), Belgian-born wine writer and educator
- Willy Geysen, law, head of the Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (CIR)
- Dr. A. Q. Khan (b. 1935), Founder of Pakistan's Nuclear Program.
- Rudi Pauwels, pharmacologist, (b. 1960) co-founder of Tibotec and Virco
- Frank Robben (b. 1961), law, general manager of the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Social Security
- Vincent Rijmen (b. 1970), cryptographer, one of the designers of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
- Francine Swiggers, economy, businesswoman
- Frans Vanistendael, law
- Marc Van Ranst (b. 1965), physician, virologist
- Herman Van Rompuy (1947 - ), Belgian statesman. Appointed President of the European Council in November 2009.
- Catherine Verfaillie, (b. 1957) physician, stem cell scientist
- Koen Vervaeke (b. 1959), history, diplomat
Honorary doctorates
Famous recipients of honorary doctorates at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven include:
- Roger Penrose, professor in Mathematical Physics, University of Oxford
- Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian writer
- Carla Del Ponte, former Chief prosecutor oftwo United Nations international criminal law tribunals
- Alan Greenspan, economist, former chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve
- Helmut Kohl, former Chancellor of Germany
- Jacques Derrida, French philosopher
- Nadine Gordimer, South African author, Booker Prize 1974, Nobel Prize in Literature 1991
- Oscar Arnulfo Romero, archbishop of San Salvador (El Salvador), human rights activist
- Jeanne Devos, founder of the National Domestic Workers Movement in India
- Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople
- Jared Diamond, professor of Geography and Physiology, UCLA
- Dirk Obbink, Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature at Oxford University and the head of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project.
Organisations
Notable divisions of the university include the Higher Institute of Philosophy and the Rega Institute for Medical Research.
The university is a member of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology (VIB). The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) is a spin-off company of the university.
The students of the university are gathered together in the student's society LOKO. They have representatives in most meetings at the university, including the Board of Directors.
Since July 2002, thirteen higher education institutes have formed the K.U.Leuven Association. The members are:
- Europese Hogeschool Brussel
- Groep T
- Hogeschool voor Kunsten en Architectuur
- Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel
- Lemmensinstituut
- Media & Design Academie
- Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst
- Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende (KHBO)
- Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen
- Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven
- Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg (KHLim)
- Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen (KHM)
- Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven (KaHo Sint-Lieven)
- Katholieke Hogeschool Zuid-West-Vlaanderen (KATHO)
- Lessius Hogeschool
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Electronic learning environment: TOLEDO
Toledo, which started in September 2001, was gradually developed into the central electronic learning environment at the Association K.U.Leuven.
The word is an acronym for "TOetsen en LEren Doeltreffend Ondersteunen" (English: effectively supporting testing and learning). It is the collective name for a number of commercial software programs and tools, such as Blackboard. The project offers the Question Mark Perception assignment software to all institution members and has implemented the Ariadne KPS to reuse digital learning objects inside the Blackboard environment.
International acclaim
On the 2009 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 world universities, KU Leuven is ranked on the 65th place.[5] An overview of the last four years.
| Year | Rank (Change) |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 95 |
| 2006 | 96 (▼ 1) |
| 2007 | 61 (▲ 35) |
| 2008 | 72 (▼ 11) |
| 2009 | 65 (▲ 7) |
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