university

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UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGES

 Studentenaula | Studentaula

 Oude Markt | Old Market Square

Wherever you may be in Leuven, you are embraced throughout by the colourful past of this university town, and meet with hoards of students. No wonder, if you know that every academic year around 40,000 young Belgians and foreigners come to this, the doyen of Flemish University towns to obtain their Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or doctorate. For almost six centuries Leuven and its university (K.U.Leuven) have 2

been inseparably linked to one another. Leuven is a very student-oriented town. Young people make up almost half the total population, ensuring a vibrant atmosphere and an agreeable bustle in a town that lives at a student’s pace. The bond between Leuven, its university, colleges and students give the town its unique character consisting of a mixture of culture, enterprise, scientific and innovative thinking, creativity, a sense of the future, friendships and parties.

ALMA MATER FOR six centuries K.U.Leuven since 1425 K.U.Leuven was founded as a Studium Generale

by Pope Martin V on 9 December 1425 at the request of the town and with support from Duke John IV of Brabant. This makes it the oldest university in the Low Countries and the oldest extant catholic university in the world.

Originally, taking the model of the existing universities of Cologne, Paris and Vienna, it had four faculties: the Arts, Canon and Civil Law and Medicine. The Faculty of Theology was added in 1432. The town made part of the Cloth Hall, which dates from 1317, available for use by the university. The building very quickly became too small for both the Linen Weavers’ Guild and the university, so the latter took the Cloth Hall over completely.

The Cloth Hall is currently used as the university’s administrative centre, housing the rectoral offices. Besides this, the ground floor of the Cloth Hall also serves as a central point of registration at the beginning of the academic year. In August and September, the gothic Jubilee Hall on the first floor is used for receptions and parties. A great many doctorates are still defended publically in the Promotion Hall.

Success and adversity During its history of almost six centuries, Leuven University has experienced periods of success and of adversity. In the 16th century, it acquired world fame thanks to scholars and professors such as Adrian of Utrecht (later Pope Adrian VI), Erasmus, Vives, Vesalius and Mercator. In the 18th century, the university was subjected to severe pressure from increased state interference, and in 1797 the French Republic dissolved the old university.

In 1816 King William I of the United Netherlands reopened the university as the National University. To counterbalance this national institution, the Belgian bishops founded a Catholic University in Mechelen in 1834. By 1835, it returned to its familiar Leuven, while the National University had been abolished in the meantime.

In 1911, Leuven University began to ‘Dutchify’ its education. By 1936, most courses were taught Universiteitsbibliotheek | University library 

in parallel, in Dutch and French. 1968 was an eventful year for the university, with the split of the Catholic University of Leuven into two independent universities, which acquired independence by statute in 1970: the Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), which remained in the Flemish town of Leuven, and the French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), which moved to Louvain-laNeuve near Ottignies, Wallonia.

In 1954, the ‘Universiteit Lovanium’ was established by K.U.Leuven in the colony of the Belgian Congo. Since 1965 K.U.Leuven has had a presence in Kortrijk, West Flanders (Kortrijk Campus).

Leuven is a melting pot of cultures - In total, Erasmus students from across Europe and master’s and doctoral ones from every corner of the world make up more than 10% of the total Leuven student population.

- The KUL has more than 38,000 students of whom approximately 17,700 are men and 21,000 women and around 5,600 international students.

K.U.Leuven is a complete university with - 55 Bachelor’s programmes - 125 Master’s programmes - 60 advanced Master’s programmes

Research at K.U.Leuven (2011) - K.U.Leuven - employs 1,018 full-time professors, has 1,052 full-time post-doctorate students and 4,381 full-time doctorate students/researchers; - spends 347 million euros on research projects - Recently (based on one academic year) - 4,338 publications appeared in internationally reviewed academic and scientific journals; - There are approximately 585 doctorates awarded on an annual basis

9 December 1425

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1464

Foundation of University

Erection of the building of he future University hall

Creation of Dirk Bouts’ Last Supper

© Layla Aerts

K.U.Leuven Association The K.U.Leuven Association has been a reality since 11 July 2002. It was formed in the context of the European Bologna Declaration, which was signed by the European ministers of education in 1999. The aim of ‘Bologna’ is to improve the quality and transparency of higher education programmes in Europe and to optimise the exchange of students, lecturers and knowledge.

Thirteen institutions of higher education in Flanders, including K.U.Leuven, KHLeuven, Groep T and the Lemmens Institute, are combining forced within this association in order to occupy a strong position in the new map of European education.

Dutch is the teaching language of the K.U.Leuven Association, but because of the university’s international significance, a large number of chiefly postgraduate - lectures and seminars are given in English and some in other languages.

KHLeuven Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven Leuven University College

Leuven University College is a Flemish Catholic college founded in 1995-1996 by the amalgamation of a number of Catholic colleges in Leuven and Diest. Leuven University College offers vocational higher education to as wide an audience as possible. The essence of education at Leuven University College is its vocational orientation. Students develop skills that enable them to continue to function in their profession in a high-quality manner.

Besides vocational Bachelor’s programmes in the fields of education, commercial sciences and business administration, healthcare, in4

dustrial sciences, technology and social and community work, you can also find advanced Bachelor’s programmes, postgraduate and post-vocational education.

Groep T Leuven has had its own technical school since 1888, which has gradually developed into a leading technical university college that trains both teachers and engineers of international standard.

Beginning as the Peter’s Technical School, the establishment developed into a Technical Institute for Engineering Students, to be rechristened Groep T in 1970. Some years later its Technical Engineers acquired the status and degree of Industrial Engineer.

It opened its doors to the international community in 1994, when the first Groep T delegation went on a mission to China. This was to mark the beginning of close academic ties with China and the Mekong Delta, with which various associations and scholarships were instituted.

Since then Groep T has become involved in solar energy and particularly in solar-powered cars. They finished 11th in their first World Solar Challenge in 2004, but in 2007 they came a worthy 2nd. The day they can call themselves ‘champions’ is not so far off.

K.U.Leuven Association The K.U.Leuven Association comprises 13 institutes of higher education spread over 23 Flemish towns and boroughs. With over 80,000 students, it is by far the biggest provider of higher education in Flanders.

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1512

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1523

Birth of Erasmus (René Rosseel)

Birth of Mercator

Birth of Vesalius

Pope’s College

Spin-offs

 Student in Pauscollege | Pope’s College © Layla Aerts

Lemmens Institute The Lemmens Institute was founded in 1879 by all the bishops in Belgium as the Higher Institute for Church Music in Mechelen where the archbishopric already had an organ and carillon school. The Belgian bishops wanted to improve church music and wanted to call upon JacquesNicolas Lemmens, a Flemish organ teacher at the Brussels Conservatoire. Lemmens died on 30 January 1881. Under the tutelage of his successors, the educational model shifted from merely organ playing, Gregorian music and choral music to musical theory, choir direction and composition. The syllabus also expanded considerably.

Since 1968 the Lemmens Institute has been accommodated at Gasthuisberg, where it has sought a closer connection with the official structure of education, in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. The study of rather underrated church music is being placed on a higher plane, while on the other hand horizons are being expanded to include non-church music.

A spin-off is a company that is spawned by another company or a university. Such companies commercialise an invention or discovery, usually made during doctoral research, and integrate it in a business structure. K.U.Leuven has a long tradition of this. In the last 35 years the increased entrepreneurship of researchers, combined with the support offered by the technology transfer agency K.U.Leuven Research & Development, has led to over 80 spin-off companies. Altogether they achieve sales of over 400 million euro and employ around 3,500 people. These include both highly educated academics and foreigners. Well-known spin-offs include IMEC, LMS, ICOS, IPCOS, Materialise, Metris, Data4s, reMynd and Thrombogenics.

IMEC The Flemish Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, IMEC for short, has been on extension of the Arenberg Campus since 1985. It was formed by Professor Baron Roger Van Overstraeten in 1984 with Flemish Government funding as a joint initiative of the universities of Brussels, Ghent and Leuven. The huge building houses a kind of superlab that does pioneering work in the microelectronics field.

Since then IMEC has grown into Europe’s biggest independent research centre for nanotechnology and nanoelectronics. Over 1,650 staff from throughout the world are working on such things as applications for better health care, smart electronics, renewable energy and safe transport.

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1879

Birth of Justus Lipsius

Van Dale College

Foundation of Catholic University in Leuven

Foundation of Lemmens Institute

î ‡ Campusbibliotheek Arenberg | Campus Library Arenberg

All pervasive the university and its campuses In Leuven an innocent tourist who asks the way to the university will attract pitying looks from the locals: the university is everywhere and nowhere. In the first place, it is a network of faculties and institutes, housed in old and new buildings

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strewn across the entire town. The humanities are concentrated in the town centre (Town Campus), the exact and applied sciences are lodged on the Arenberg Campus, and the biomedical sciences have moved with the hospital to the Gasthuisberg Campus.

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1971

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Split between KUL and UCL

Establishment of Gasthuisberg University Hospital

The University donates the statue ‘Fonske’ (Jef Claerhout) to the Town

Town Campus Professors and traders’ cries The Town Campus is the child of the old university, since part of the Cloth Hall was made available immediately after the university’s foundation. Professors and traders’ cries and the shouting and bustle of hawkers and students were heard there together for years. Over the course of time, however, the Cloth Hall became too small for both activities and the traders’ cries disappeared. Nowadays the University Hall houses the university’s administrative headquarters, including the Rectoral Offices and the Registrar’s Office, where enrolment takes place.

Of another old university building only the 18th century portico now remains, which serves as the entrance for the brand new Museum M.

Clusters With its many colleges, Naamsestraat, which is also the location of the University Hall, may be considered ‘the university’s main street’. Many university buildings are clustered together to the east of the street, connected by a network of shortcuts and courtyards.

The first cluster is that of the true humanities headed by the theologians, who have appropriately moved into the delightfully restored ­Veterans’ College. From their superbly appointed library, they enter into dialogue with both science and society. The sages of the Institute of Philosophy are accommodated in the intimate setting of a neo-gothic building. ­Psychologists and educationalists occupy premises nearby and the Faculty of Letters resides in the ­Erasmus Building, a concrete colossus in the shadow of the university library.

Its vast scale, location and festive architecture undoubtedly make the library the most striking building in the university. Its clock tower dominates the skyline and it has become a true landmark. Its dazzling interior is well-known from television and publicity material. The impressive reading room where students swot and chill has progressively become a symbol of learning.

The Faculty of Law has moved into the old De Valk College. This outshines all the rest and its 18th century grandeur lends budding lawyers the status they need.

Municipal Park The Faculty of Economics is headquartered in the 17th century College of the High Hill, with extensions on the edge of the Municipal Park. ­Mercury, the god of trade and thieves, rises from a fishpond. Completely surrounded by university buildings, the park has become something of a university garden.

At the top of the park there is the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, one of Europe’s top business schools. It provides managers with intensive training for modern business life. A stone’s throw away there is the Faculty of ­Social Sciences. This complex - built quickly in 1960, the time of expansion and democratisation was long the black sheep of the family. Refurbishment and the building of new lecture halls and living accommodation have given its internal area a totally contemporary appearance.

The lecture theatres are named after the politician Jean Monet and the sociologist Max Weber who laid the foundations for the ­European Union and modern sociology respectively.

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Formation of Imec

UNESCO recognises Large Beguinage as a world heritage site

Conception and creation Totem (Jan Fabre) © Layla Aerts

Campus Libraries

Board & lodging

K.U.Leuven has excellent traditional and hypermodern library facilities, which are spread out over the entire university and together make up the university library. Besides the Central Library in the town centre, you can also find campuses with their own libraries at Gasthuisberg, Arenberg and Kortrijk. Besides these, every faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences Group has its own library.

Buildings for education and research highlight the townscape of the southeast part of the town.

Students also had to be housed and fed - and hence facilities for students have also helped to define the scene. Originally students took up residence in privately run colleges where they were given food and lodging. Magnificent buildings with courtyards and kitchen maids, a president and college rules, a studious atmosphere and student derring-do.

The University Library Services perform the task of preparing policy and cover services that are required for efficient operation of the university library as a whole. Just think of the digital library, cataloguing policy, pool staff, inter-library document supply (= distribution and use of electronic documents relating to the library) for the Central Library and humanities, etc.

K.U.Leuven is the only one in continental ­Europe whose colleges have retained their original function: Holy Ghost College, a delightful urban palace and also the oldest college; the Pope’s College with its impressive courtyard; the highly charming, Italianate Van Dale College (with cortile and campanile) and the Oxford-like ­Justus Lipsius College.

In the meantime professors and students have even laid their hands on the Great Beguinage, which was originally built for pious women and has since been classified as a World Heritage Site

by Unesco. Other colleges are now used for education and research. Quite recently the veterina­ rians and physicists have been the latest scientists to put down roots in the heart of the town, at the King’s and Premonstratensian Colleges respectively. The lion’s share of the scientists have moved to the Arenberg Campus outside the town and the medics have found room to breathe at Gasthuisberg. Only the extremely rare Anatomy Theatre - Padua and Uppsala also have one - and the Botanical Gardens with a lovely orangery the former Hortus of the medical faculty - remind us that there was once an embryonic medical campus here, right by the town hospital.  Campusbibliotheek | Campus Library Arenberg

2002

2002

2006

Opening of Arenberg Campus Library

Opening of STUK Arts Centre

Establishment of KH Leuven campus on the Gasthuisberg site

Arenberg Campus When you drive into Leuven, you will be struck immediately by how green the surroundings still are. This green lung is formed by the combination of the Arenberg Campus with Heverlee Forest and the Meerdaal Forest. Thanks to the German Arenberg family - which donated the estate to the University after WW1 - the departments of Science and Technology have found themselves majestic accommodation there. At a time when every university was looking for space to house its scientific institutes, ­Arenberg Castle - with its aristocratic towers and battlements - was a godsend for K.U.Leuven, which laid the first stone of the Departments of ­Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering there as long ago as 1922.

Although the machine hall of the Thermotechnical Institute, with its steam engine in the middle, has become an attraction for industrial archaeologists, the campus has expanded considerably, been modernised and matched to the pace of technological progress.

In the park you also regularly come across greenhouses and hothouses. These belong to the agri­cultural institute, which is, among other things, the world centre for the cultivation of bananas and stands to the right of the castle.

The Electrical Engineering Institute has also taken root there. Just outside the town, FABER, the Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, has extensive facilities consisting of a venerable gymnasium, a trendy fitness building plus sports fields and training grounds, an athletics track and swimming pool and a large multi-functional sports hall.

FABER was established in 1937 by the young lecturer P.P. De Nayer who, at the request of the rector, Mgr. Ladeuze, was to develop lectures on sports medicine, to rejuvenate student sports and attend to the building of a sports institute.The success of the course and the indoor sports ensured that a complete large, new sport complex was opened in 1969, ushering in a new epoch in the history of Leuven university sport. Out of gratitude to the driving force behind it, the complex was named after Professor De Nayer.

The best kept secret of the Arenberg Campus is the Arenberg Campus Library (CBA), which resides in the former Celestine monastery in de Croylaan. It is one of the biggest and most modern science and engineering libraries in continental Europe. CBA houses a million books and reference works under one roof. Students, academics, alumni and other visitors can work there in a high tech environment full of multimedia solutions.

In an open riverside landscape, just outside the park on the other side of the Dijle, we find the white buildings of the Faculty of Science: mathe­matics and physics, IT and chemistry and recently also the earth sciences, which are most appropriately housed in a striking red brick building. By the motorway the campus is fringed by the ‘science park’, brand new quarters for spinoffs from the university.

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 Campus Gasthuisberg

Gasthuisberg Campus For many Flemings ‘Going to Leuven’ means ­either ‘going to university’, or ‘going to the best hospital in the country’. In 1971 after the embryonic teaching hospital in the town had been struggling with lack of space, the ideal place for a completely new medical campus with hospital and teaching accommodation was found on the ridge above the town known as Gasthuisberg.

Modern management, a concentration of highly qualified medics and the dedicated efforts of the clinical staff have since made UZ Leuven one of Europe’s top hospitals. It is the biggest European hospital after Rome. In 2007 the Gasthuisberg Campus Master Plan Project began, under which all medical services will be concentrated on the campus: education, research, general hospital, day hospital and a public part with civic functions (a hotel, shops, student accommodation). The whole project will be complete in 2020.

 Campus Gasthuisberg

UZ Leuven is responsible for 2,4 million visitors a year Bed days: 533,042 Hospitalised patients: 64,287 Outpatient visits: 635,513 Central medical archives: 2,500,000 files

UZ Leuven has • • • • • • •

47 operating theatres 7 intensive care units 49 wards 1,955 staffed beds around 56,000 m2 of corridors 8,500 m2 of stair cases 7,225 m2 of toilets

The hospital’s central kitchen serves 5,500 meals a day. The hospital’s cafeterias open their doors to 7,450 hungry customers every day. That means that around 5,800 servings of soup. The bakery supplies more than 700 loaves of bread, 500 baguettes, 1,600 pastries and 150 pies every day.

And every year 10,000 TL bulbs are replaced on all the campuses.

The cleaning crew, which employs approximately 550 people, is responsible for cleaning, disinfecting and maintaining the approximately 300,000 m2 premises.

Heads that have shaped history

 Mercator (Raoul Biront)

Desiderius Erasmus

Andreas Vesalius

In the 16 century Europe was a theological ­battleground. One of the critical voices came from Desiderius Erasmus. He represents the true spirit of humanism, which argues for free will and the dignity of man.

Erasmus regarded himself as a ‘citizen of the world’ or ‘non-citizen’. He criticised ‘his’ Europe and profited from the art of printing to spread his Latin texts everywhere. He lived in England for a while, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Thomas More, the author of Utopia.

At More’s urging Erasmus wrote The Praise of Folly. By starting out with a fool as the speaker he was able to mock the misplaced seriousness with which all men, no matter what their trade, rank or position, howl about their own interests and the short-sightedness with which they form their opinions of one another.

As a humanist, Erasmus studied classical texts in their original languages. He finally wrote a new Latin translation of the New Testament with the Greek original as its starting point. When Maarten Luther used that translation as the basis of his German version, things got out of hand. Despite his good intentions and vain attempts, Erasmus did not succeed in reconciling the Christians of his times. In 1559 he was branded a heretic for his supposed part in the Reformation. His works appeared on the list of prohibited books.

On his tour of Europe, Erasmus also visited the Netherlands. He stayed in Brussels, Mechelen, Antwerp and Leuven. In Leuven, he founded the Three Languages College or Collegium ­Trilingue with the aim of promoting the teaching of classical languages, Greek, Hebrew and Latin, which are necessary to read the classics in their original. His Collegium Trilingue was later home to many prominent scholars, such as Mercator, ­Vesalius and Dodoens.

Vesalius was a Flemish doctor and anatomist of German origin. He is considered the founder of modern human anatomy thanks to his first complete book on the human body.

Andreas Vesalius was born Andries van Wesele in Brussels in 1514, to a family of distinguished physicians. Just like his father and grandfather before him, the young Andreas decided to study medicine - first at the University of Leuven, then some years in Paris and back to Leuven again, where he obtained the Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1537.

After that he went to Padua where he took the degree of doctor of medicine that very year.

In Vesalius’ time, the study of the human body was still taught just as the Greek Galen had stipulated centuries before. But Vesalius was curious and headstrong. He anatomised corpses and gradually established that Galen had never seen the inside of a human. Vesalius’ magnificently illustrated work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) refutes the old notions. He unleashed a revolution in medical thought.

After he had dedicated his masterpiece to the Emperor Charles, he was promptly appointed as the emperor’s personal physician, and later that of his son Phillip II. He was one of the most successful doctors of his day. The story has it that at night, like a Dr. Frankenstein, he went steeling corpses from the gallows-lea so that he could carry out dissections on them. But the bulk of his ‘dissection material’ was actually simply made available. Dissections of humans were allowed, but at first only one per year, in the winter.

Vesalius died on the Greek island of Zakynthos on 15 October 1564. He was on his way to ­Jerusalem, but ended up on the island because of a ship wreck. His grave has never been found, which has led to the wildest speculations.

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 Erasmus (René Rosseel)

Justus Lipsius

Gerard Mercator The important cartographer Gerard Mercator (1512-1594), chiefly known for his world and celestial atlases, was born in Rupelmonde on 5 March 1512 as Gheert Cremer. In his youth he received instruction from his great uncle, the then pastor of the hospice in Rupelmonde.

The young Gerard initially went to study mathe­ matics in Leuven. Later he stayed there for many years to work as a land surveyor.

Mercator was a special kind of cartographer.

Most of his colleagues were simple craftsmen, who began as booksellers, silversmiths or something of the kind. But Mercator was different. He was a learned man who was extremely interested in the cosmos. On his 24th birthday he married Barbara Schellekens, probably a Leuven lady, by whom he had six children, all of whom were baptised in St. Peter’s Church. Mercator and his family lived in Schrijnmakersstraat off Mechelsestraat. The Three Languages College (Collegium Trilingue) founded by Erasmus, of whom he was a frequent guest, is in the same neighbourhood. His great dream was to draw an all-embracing atlas of the earth and heavens.

On this 40th birthday Mercator left Leuven to settle in Duisburg and continue working on his atlas there. However, he was never to finish it.

He actually died in Duisburg in 1594 while the definitive version of his atlas was only published in 1695. The book - which was finished by his descendants - is so much better than the work of his competitors that it very quickly became a renowned work and much in demand. The atlas was even translated from Latin into different languages, always under the title ‘Atlas’. This is how our English word ‘Atlas’ came to mean a book of maps. In astronomy, where Atlas originally belonged (Mercator originally wanted to write a book of maps of the heavens), his name is nowadays forgotten.

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The philologist and philosopher Justus Lipsius was born Joost Lips in Overijse on 18 October 1547. He studied Classical Literature and Law at the Alma Mater. At the request of Cardinal Granvelle he travelled to Rome with the latter to deal with his correspondence. He saw the Vatican in a full-blooded state of crisis but he also learned about Roman antiquity, the Vatican libraries and humanism.

After a diversion via Vienna, he ended up back in his parental home in Overijse in 1574 and went to teach in Leuven. However, he did not take to the tense environment of the Southern Nether­ lands and moved to the Calvinist University of William of Orange in Leiden where he flourished completely. When the wet and foggy climate of the north began to weigh on his health, he moved back to Leuven where he was once again allowed to give lectures.

As a professor he employed an unusual and surprisingly modern method of teaching. He also paid great heed to the personal tutoring of his pupils. He befriended a group of some seven students who lodged with him, chiefly in the period between 1595 and 1601. They were mainly sons of influential friends who had expressly requested the favour.

Severely ill, Lipsius died childless at his house in Leuven during the night of 24 to 25 March 1606.

According to Montaigne the most learned man of his time died in him.

Dirk Bouts In St. Peter’s Church there are some world-famous paintings, including ones by Dieric Bouts.

Once he had finished his training, Bouts, born in Haarlem, settled in Leuven - a town that was quickly to achieve great renown for its newly founded university - as a painter in 1448.

After the death of his wife Katharina van de Bruggen by whom he had two sons and two daughters, he wedded Elisabeth van Voshem, daughter of the then mayor, in 1474.

Through his well-placed family, more than one member of which was a prominent burgess, Dirk Bouts immediately acquired a good name in Leuven. After he had painted The Last Supper in 1464, he was himself appointed masterpainter to the town in Leuven, where died on 6 May 1475. His body was placed in the Franciscan church alongside that of his first wife.

Student in Leuven

 Aula Van Evenstraat

Broadening the mind

K.U.Leuven Culture Coordination

Everywhere in the town you will find companionable cafés, trendy restaurants and nifty clubs to suit everyone’s taste and pocket.

Culture vultures can have a whale of a time in Leuven too. The programmes offered through and by the university and colleges are multifaceted and appeal to the imagination of the student population. Theatre, dance, literature, films, pop, rock or classical music, visual art ...

These have already become an established part of the students’ cultural world.

K.U.Leuven Culture Coordination is housed in the STUK Arts Centre and guides students and staff through Leuven’s extensive cultural re­ pertoire. Culture Coordination itself organises the free cultural series ‘UUR KULtUUR ’ and coordinates and supports the operations of the eight University Ensembles and the university carillon.

STUK Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven The ‘STUK’ arts centre makes its presence clear by big metal letters on Naamsestraat. As a former university building it is located amid different university establishments.

The building (architects Neutelings Riedijk, Antwerp-Rotterdam) is erected around a public patio onto which various ‘rooms’ open, including a cinema, the STUKcafé, an auditorium, business premises, offices and a theatre. On the patio ar-tists, visitors and passers by meet one another, and a different world lurks behind every door.

This building is jewel in the crown of the town planning vision that both town and university employ in the town centre. Time and again, dozens of alleyways, unexpected perspectives, and walking past centuries-old and modern buildings bring discovery of new parts of this town, which is also literally interwoven with the university.

Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven

Fakbars A Fakbar is a popular meeting place for students, unique in Flanders. Each faculty of K.U.Leuven has its own fakbar. The students man the pumps themselves and the beer is at student prices.

Just pop in on a Thursday evening, the night out for Leuven students. You will find most of the fakbars in Tiensestraat.

• Capsule

Parkstraat 4, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Pharmaceutical and Educational Sciences.

• Délibéré

Tiensestraat 146, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Groep T.

• Doc’s Bar

Brusselsestraat 246, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Medicine.

• Dulci

Tiensestraat 77, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Applied Economics and Business Science.

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• Elixir

De Waaiberg, Tervuursevest 60, ­3000 ­Leuven Faculty: Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering.

• Fak Letteren

Blijde Inkomststraat 11, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Literature.

• Gnorgl

Waversebaan 71, 3001 Heverlee Faculty: Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences.

• Huis der Rechten

Tiensestraat 53, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Law.

• Pavlov

Tiensestraat 51, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Psychology.

• Politika Kaffee

Tiensestraat 55, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Social Sciences.

• Sportzak

Tervuursevest 60, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences.

• Alegria

Oude Markt, 3000 Leuven Faculty: KHLeuven (Health Care and Technology).

• Cuythoek

Kapucijnenvoer 5, 3000 Leuven Faculty: KHLeuven (Department of Social Work, Heverlee) and Dentistry.

• The Pocket

Minckelersstaat 76, 3000 Leuven Faculty: KHLeuven (Rega).

• RC

Arenbergpark (Alma 3), 3000 Leuven Faculty: Mathematics, IT and Physics.

• Weirdo’s

Naamsestraat 32, 3000 Leuven Faculty: Criminological Sciences and KHLeuven (ECHO)

Student Restaurants What is ALMA ALMA is the unit that runs K.U.Leuven’s restaurants and cafeterias. As a student or member of staff you can eat at a very democratic price.

The idea of organising a cheap restaurant for students arose shortly after the Second World War. After initial short-lived initiatives it got to the point that ‘ALMA’ opened for business in Bondgenotenlaan on 15 February 1954. You paid 6 Belgian francs for breakfast, 24 for lunch and 20 for dinner. A cold buffet and a milk bar were also provided.

Over the decades that followed ALMA was to go through a number of expansions, acquisitions and modernisations that without exception had a single unchanging aim in mind: to offer healthy, varied meals, hot and cold drinks that meet students’ expectations of both food and price.

In 2003 management and staff agreed on a massive restructuring to get ALMA back on track. Today the student restaurants are ready for the next 50 years.

Most student restaurants are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays - the days when, in theory, the students are not in Leuven.

For practical details: www.alma.be

ALMA restaurants in Leuven • Alma 1

Tiensestraat 115, 3000 Leuven

• Alma 2

E. Van Evenstraat 2C, 3000 Leuven

• Alma 3

Arenberg 1 (Steengroevelaan), 3001 Leuven

• Alma Gasthuisberg

Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven

• Alma Pauscollege

Hogeschoolplein 3, 3000 Leuven

• De Moete

Celestijnenlaan 200 P, 3001 Leuven

• De Spuye

Tervuursevest101, 3001 Leuven

• ’t Academisch Kwartiertje

Tiensestraat 41, 3000 Leuven

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Š Johan Vancutsem - 't Oogenblik fotografie

Aha! Footsteps of Science Walk yourself wise All the different faculties of the University of Leuven - fifteen in total - and the three Leuven colleges think a lot about life. They are currently carrying out some innovative research. They are looking for tangible things that can improve the quality of our lives. What are they working on and developing behind the scenes? You can find out all about it along the free Aha! SciSteps

walking route. A large panel has been set up in front of each of the faculties and colleges with an explanation in Dutch, French, German, English and Spanish about their findings, about what they are working on, and with some interesting information about the building in which they’re working. If you walk the 13 kilometres (6 km in the city centre), you can pick up a fair amount of knowledge. A healthy mind in a healthy body.

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L E U VEN | F L ANDERS | BELGIUM

TOuRISM LEUVEN Open from 10:00 to 17:00, Monday to Sunday.

Closed on public holidays and associated days and Sundays from the first of November to the end of February. t +32 (0)16 20 30 20 - f +32 (0)16 20 30 03 - tourism@leuven.be - www.visitleuven.be

Colofon The greatest care has been taken over the accuracy and up-to-dateness of the information published in this guide. Tourism Leuven declines all liability for any errors. Neither is the publisher liable for changes after the date of publication. Any comments and changes may be communicated to infogids@leuven. be.

This series also includes: street wise in Leuven architecture and sculptures group tours and day trips lodging in Leuven cycling and walking events and activities

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