Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

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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	506.8 million EUR
Rector	Marc Vervenne (2005- )
Staff	8,107
Students	30,442
Doctoral students	427
Location	Leuven, Belgium
Campus	Leuven, Kortrijk
Affiliations	Coimbra Group, LERU
Website	www.kuleuven.be
Data as of 2005

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven in English - also the translated name of its French-speaking sister university) or K.U.Leuven is a Flemish university, located in the town of Leuven in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking (northern) region of Belgium. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven also owns the university of Kortrijk, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Afdeling Kortrijk (KULAK).

In 2006, more than 30,000 students were attending classes at the 14 faculties of the University of Leuven. 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 2005, the university has been led by Marc Vervenne who replaced former rector André Oosterlinck. The Belgian archbishop, Cardinal Godfried Danneels is the current Grand Chancellor and a member of the university board.

The K.U.Leuven is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and organises an annual celebration on February 2 in her honor. On that day, the university also awards its honorary doctorates.

In polarized Flanders, the K.U.Leuven is catholic, whereas the University of Ghent and the University of Antwerp are considered pluralist, and the Free University of Brussels independent. However, nowadays these polarized classifications are less relevant than they once were: students and staff tend to choose a university rather for pragmatic reasons - like the quality of education, the distance to the campus or even the offered opportunities - than purely for religious or philosophical reasons.

K.U.Leuven is a strongly research oriented university (notwithstanding it has more than 30,000 students), and its ambition is to be among the top European universities in terms of scientific output. For instance, Rijndael, the cipher chosen as the Advanced Encryption Standard, was developed at K.U.Leuven.

Contents 1 History 2 Library 3 Faculties 4 Notable alumni 5 Honorary doctorates 6 Organisations 7 Electronic learning environment: TOLEDO 8 See also 9 Footnotes 10 External links

[edit] History

In the 15^th century the city of Leuven requested for a university and John IV, Duke of Brabant gave his support to the request. With a papal bull signed by Pope Martin V on 9 December 1425 the Louvain University was founded as a Studium Generale. As such it is the oldest Catholic university in the world still in existence today. In its early days this university was modeled after the universities of Paris, Cologne and Vienna. The university flourished in the 16^th century due to the presence of famous scientists and professors, such as Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens (Pope Adrian VI), Desiderius Erasmus, Joan Lluís Vives, Andreas Vesalius and Gerardus Mercator.

In 1797, however, the old university was closed under the reign of the French Republic, as the region was annexed to France during the French Revolutionary Wars. When the region was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815-1830), William I of the Netherlands founded a new university in 1816 in Leuven as a Rijksuniversiteit (E: State university). Belgium became independent in 1830, and the Belgian bishops founded a new Roman catholic university in 1834, at Mechelen, but already in 1835, the catholic university returned to Leuven, where the Rijksuniversiteit had been closed.

The next milestone came in 1968 when the bilingual Catholic University of Leuven was split into two universities, which became independent institutions in 1970, being the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université Catholique de Louvain. The split was caused by repeated protests from Flemish organisations and student population (Leuven Vlaams action, E: Leuven Flemish). The Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), remained in Leuven (Flanders, north part of Belgium), and Pieter De Somer became the first rector of the new university. The French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), moved to Louvain-la-Neuve at Ottignies (Wallonia, south part of Belgium). Now there is about a forty-five minute drive between the two universities.

[edit] Library

The first library was located inside the university halls, and was enlarged in 1725 in a baroque style. In 1914, during World War I, Leuven was plundered by German troops, and a large part of the city was put to fire, effectively destroying about half of the city. The library was lost, as well as about 300,000 books, and a huge collection of manuscripts collected since the university's founding in 1425.

The new main library was built between 1921 and 1928 and designed by the American architect Whitney Warren in low countries neorenaissance style. Its monumentality is a reflection of the victory against Prussian Germany. It is one of the largest university buildings in the city. However, in 1940, ironically, during the German armed forces invasion of Leuven, the building largely burnt down, including its (at that time) 900,000 manuscripts and books.

After the reconstruction and the split of the university in 1968, nowadays the library owns about one million works. At the time of the separation, all books with an odd letter stayed in Leuven, while the even-numbered ones moved to Louvain-la-Neuve. Although this split conceptually took place, in reality, it was merely a decision based on equity and intended to create a system for negotiation. In the end, of course, rationality prevailed: bequests, serials, encyclopedias, and so on, were kept together in one location, while the remainder of books with no claim to them by either university was divided according to book number.

[edit] Faculties

• Faculty of Theology
• Institute of Philosophy
• (Extraordinary) Faculty of Canon Law
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Economics and Applied Economics
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Applied Bioscience and Engineering
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences

[edit] Notable alumni

• Luc Bertrand, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ackermans & van Haaren.
• Herman Van Den Berghe, founder of the Centrum voor Menselijke Erfelijkheid.
• Adriaan Florisz. Boeyens (1459 - 1523), later Pope Adrian VI.
• Karel Boone, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lotus Bakeries.
• Didier de Chaffoy de Courcelles, Vice President R&D of Janssen Pharmaceutica
• Joan Daemen (1965 - ), cryptographer, one of the designers of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
• Rembert Dodoens (1517 - 1585), botanist.
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466 - 1536), humanist.
• Otto von Habsburg (1912 - ), the current head of the Habsburg family.
• Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585 - 1638), father of the Jansenist movement.
• Paul De Keersmaeker, politician and businessman.
• Dr. A. Q. Khan, Founder of Pakistan's Nuclear Program. (b. 1935)
• Georges Lemaître (1894 - 1966), astronomer and proposer of the Big Bang theory.
• Thomas Leysen, law, businessman
• Justus Lipsius (1547 - 1606), humanist.
• Malachi Martin (1921 - 1999), Irish priest and writer.
• Gerard Mercator (1512 - 1594), cartographer.
• Vincent Rijmen (1970 - ), cryptographer, one of the designers of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
• Pieter De Somer (1917 - 1985)
• Jan Standonck (1454 - 1504) - priest and reformer, Master of the Collège de Montaigu in Paris.
• Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564), father of modern anatomy.
• Arthur Vierendeel (1852 – 1940) civil engineer.
• Weng Wenhao (1889~1971), geologist
• Jan Zaprudnik (1924 - ), Belarusian American historian and poet.

[edit] 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, writer
• Carla Del Ponte, former Chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor
• 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, former cardinal of San Salvador (El Salvador), human rights activist

(A full list can be found here)

[edit] 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 Flemish Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology (VIB). The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) is spin-off company of the university.

Since July 2002, thirteen higher education institutes have formed the K.U.Leuven Associations. The members are^[1]:

• EHSAL
• Groep T
• Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel
• Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst
• Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende
• Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen
• Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven
• Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg
• Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen
• Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven
• Katholieke Hogeschool Zuid-West-Vlaanderen
• Lessius Hogeschool
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The Association also collaborates closely with the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel.

[edit] 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's 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.

[edit] See also

• List of universities in Belgium

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Associations Members. Retrieved March 4, 2007.

[edit] External links

• Official website of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for foreign students on iAgora - Reviews by former Erasmus and other international students in Leuven on iAgora.