Université catholique de Louvain

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Catholic University of Leuven

Latin: Universitas Catholica Lovaniensis
Motto	Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom, Seat of Knowledge)
Established	1425
Type	Private Catholic
Endowment	360 million EUR
Rector	Bernard Coulie (2005- )
Staff	5,073
Students	21,647
Doctoral students	1,371
Location	Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Campus	Louvain-la-Neuve, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
Affiliations	Coimbra Group, académie universitaire Louvain, 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. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels. It is a complete university.

History

The origins of the institution date back to 1425, which makes it the oldest Catholic university still active. The university was established by a bull signed by Pope Martin V.

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The University was based in Leuven ("Louvain" in French), 30 km from Brussels, until 1968. Up to that year, resentment had been growing among Flemings because of privileges given to French-speaking academic staff and the perceived lack of respect by the local French-speaking community for Flanders, wherein Leuven lies. Some French-speakers proposed to change the administrative status of Leuven, including it in a larger, bilingual 'Greater-Brussels'. On the other hand, some Flemish nationalists wanted to expel any trace of the French language from Flanders and could not stand a bilingual university there. The linguistic dispute was resolved by the following settlement: the Dutch-speaking part, now named Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, would stay in Leuven (which is in the part of Belgium where Dutch is the official language), while the French-speaking part would move to a newly created town, Louvain-la-Neuve, 20 km south-east of Brussels.

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 used to be 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.

Faculties

1. Faculty of Theology (theology)
2. Faculty of Philosophy (also known as the Institute of Philosophy, ISP)(philosophy)
3. Faculty of Law (law)
4. Faculty of Economical, Social and Political Sciences.(economics, management , sociology, anthropology, political sciences, communication, journalism, demography, development studies).
5. Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (Arts and Humanities)(languages and literature, history, history of art, theatre, archeology)
6. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (psychology, education)
7. Faculty of Science (biology, chemistry, physics, geography, mathematics)
8. Faculty of Engineering (engineering)
9. Faculty of Applied Bioscience and Engineering (bio-engineering, agronomy, environment studies)
10. Faculty of Medicine (medicine)
11. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (pharmacology)
12. 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

• Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, a mathematician who proved the prime number theorem
• Georges Lemaître, who proposed the Big Bang theory (at the time, Université catholique de Louvain was based in Leuven and was the same as the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
• Christian de Duve, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1974, for his discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell
• 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 Gutierrez, Peruvian Dominican theologian, founder of Liberation Theology.
• Adolphe Gesché (1928-2005)
• Philippe Van Parijs (1951), philosopher and economist
• Christian Arnsperger (1966), economist
• David Payne (1944)
• Rafael Correa, the newly elected President of Ecuador
• Maurice Anthony Biot, Belgian-American physicist and the founder of the theory of poroelasticity.

See also

• Louvain-la-Neuve
• List of universities in Belgium

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

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