| KU Leuven | |
|---|---|
| Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | |
| Latin: Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis | |
| Motto | Sedes Sapientiae (Latin) |
| Motto in English | "Seat of Wisdom", or "Seat of Knowledge" |
| Established | 1424/1834/1970[1] |
| Type | Independent/Free catholic university |
| Endowment | € 950 million |
| Rector | Mark Waer (2009–present) |
| Admin. staff | 8,871 |
| Students | 40,014 (2011-12) |
| Doctoral students | 3,677 |
| Location | Leuven, Belgium |
| Campus | Leuven Kortrijk |
| Affiliations | Coimbra Group LERU |
| Website | www.kuleuven.be |
| Data as of 2009[update] | |
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (in short KU Leuven)[2][3] is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.
It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425. The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium's oldest university,[1] split into the KU Leuven and the French-language Université catholique de Louvain, which moved to Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia. Throughout its long history dating back to the 15th century, 'Louvain', as it is still often called, has always been a major contributor to the development of Catholic theology.
With 36,923 students in 2009–2010, the KU Leuven is the largest university in Belgium and the Low Countries. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven also has a campus at Kortrijk, formerly known as Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Afdeling Kortrijk (KULAK). The university now also offers several programs in English.[4]
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The KU Leuven is a strongly research-oriented university. Among its many accolades is to be reckoned among the top universities of Europe. In the 2011-2012 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) university ranking, the KU Leuven was ranked 67th in the world and 17th in Europe, making it the highest ranked university from the low countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) in either category.[5] In 2010, the university ranked above such well-known US universities as Purdue University, Dartmouth College, Penn State, Emory University, and Georgetown University.[6]. Its current 2011 QS World University Ranking position is 68th.[7]
In Academic Year 2009-2010, 36,923 students were attending classes at the 14 faculties of the KU 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 KU 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 Léonard is the current Grand Chancellor and a member of the university board.
The KU 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 KU 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.[8] 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.
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 departing to a newly built, greenfield campus site in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Pieter De Somer became the first rector of the KU Leuven.
In 1972 the KU 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 KU Leuven became the dominant institution in the "KU Leuven Association" (see below).
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 KU Leuven's Faculty of Theology library is among the most comprehensive in the world.
Source: KU Leuven: Faculties, departments and schools
Group Humanities and Social Sciences
Science, Engineering & Technology
Famous recipients of honorary doctorates at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven include:
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:[9]
Toledo, which started in September 2001, was gradually developed into the central electronic learning environment at the Association KU 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.
| University rankings (overall) | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| ARWU[10] | 2-3 |
| Global | |
| ARWU[11] | 102-150 |
| QS[12] | 68 |
| Times[13] | 67 |
In 2010 QS World University Rankings[14] ranked KU Leuven 86th overall in the world, dropping back 21 places from its position in the 2009 THE–QS World University Rankings list of the top 200 world universities (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings), where KU Leuven was ranked in 65th place.[15] An overview of the THE-QS Rankings up to 2010:
| Year | Rank (Change) |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 95 |
| 2006 | 96 ( 1) |
| 2007 | 61 ( 35) |
| 2008 | 72 ( 11) |
| 2009 | 65 ( 7) |
| 2010 | 86 ( 21) - QS 119 - THE |
| 2011 | 68 ( 18) - QS 67( 52) - THE |
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