Université Libre de Bruxelles

The Ranking of Université Libre de Bruxelles

www.ulb.ac.be

The Université Libre de Bruxelles (or ULB) is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. When it was inaugurated in 1834, the ULB had 96 students, whereas it now has over 21,000. The number of faculties and schools also increased in response to the emergence of new disciplines and an ever greater number of specialisations.

ULB’s seven Faculties, Schools and specialised Institutes cover all disciplines and all study cycles, from bachelors to doctorate and continuing education, and closely combine classroom teaching and research. Located in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, it has extended its activities to the south of the country (Wallonia) and has science parks, a teaching hospital (Erasme), a hospital network and a library with state-of-the-art equipment.

ULB is also a member of the Pôle universitaire européen de Bruxelles Wallonie (Brussels partners of the Alliance for Higher Education and Research), which includes the Free University of Brussels, five Hautes écoles, the Royal Military School, two Architecture institutes and two institutions of higher learning for the arts. Thanks to the 230 courses provided by these partner institutions, the Pole can offer students nearly the entire range of higher education degrees available in French-language Belgium.

To complete this overview, it is helpful to note that ULB has strengthened its partnerships by sharing resources and competencies with the University of Mons-Hainaut and the polytechnic Faculty of Mons. This association is known as the Académie universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles Wallonie (Alliance for Higher Education and Research).

With three Nobel Prizes, a Fields Medal, three Wolf Award in physics, 44% of the five-yearly Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique awards and 29% of the Francqui Awards, ULB ranks with the major research universities. With 15 Marie Curie research training networks and about sixty other projects in the 6th Research/Development Framework Programme, it has also proven itself to be an important partner for European science.

The University has a reputation for excellence in both basic and applied research in the biomedical field. It has other strong points: physics, economics and political science, European studies, international law, history, the French language, philosophy and, more recently, subjects such as artificial intelligence.

History

The history of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is closely linked with that of Belgium itself. When the nine provinces that broke away from the Kingdom of the Netherlands formed the Belgian State in 1830, there were three state universities in the country: Ghent, Liege and Leuven. Even though Brussels had been promoted to the rank of capital, it still had no university.

For this reason, in 1831 a group of leading Brussels figures in the fields of the arts, science and education set themselves the objective of creating a university for the city. They had the choice between a state university and, failing that, a private institution, since the Belgian Constitution, the most liberal in Europe, allowed for his possibility.

From 1836 it was to be called the Université Libre de Bruxelles, but although the geographical term may have changed, the adjective "free" remained. This was a key point.

The University is private but is recognised and subsidised by the public authorities. The University receives an allocation from the State which currently amounts to 60% of its budget (contract research = 30%). With more than 8,000 employees (university and teaching hospital), it is one of the Brussels region’s top companies.

University sites

The Université libre de Bruxelles is located on several campuses and other sites:

At Brussels

• the Solbosch campus, the University's main location, houses the University's administration as well as other facilities and services. Most Faculties are also based here, except the Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Institute for Pharmacy.
• the Plaine campus, situated at less than a mile from the Solbosch site, accommodates many science departments. The Institute for Pharmacy and the administration of the Faculty of Science are based there as well. In addition, this campus hosts the Victor Horta Higher Institute for Architecture, which is associated with ULB.
• the teaching-hospital campus in Anderlecht houses the Erasmus Hospital, the Medical School and the School of Public Health, as well as the School of Nursing, which is run by ULB.
  
  

At Wallonia

• the Charleroi campus (Parentville) is the coordination centre for the ULB's activities in Wallonia. It houses the Science and Technology Museum, an Education Centre, and several research teams.
• the Institute for Molecular Biology and Medecine (IMBM), located on the Charleroi airport complex (Gosselies), houses researchers from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medecine.
• the Nivelles campus organises activities in the fields of teaching, research and enterprise support.
• the Treignes site houses the Ecomuseum of the Viroin region
  
  

Research

With three Nobel Prizes, a Fields Medal, three Wolf Award in physics, 44% of the five-yearly Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique awards and 29% of the Francqui Awards, ULB ranks with the major research universities. With 15 Marie Curie research training networks and an active implication in the 7th Research/Development Framework Programme, it has also proven itself to be an important partner for European science.

The University has a reputation for excellence in both basic and applied research in the biomedical field. It has other strong points: physics, economics and political science, European studies, international law, history, the French language, philosophy and, more recently, subjects such as artificial intelligence.

ULB has been committed to a research structuring and valuation process for several years. This has included creating doctoral schools, defining the researcher’s status and revaluing their career, increasing researcher stability through contracts, a policy to promote interdisciplinarity and the creation of a patent and investment fund (Theodorus I and II).

The ULB, actor of economic development and regional grounding

ULB is actively involved in the economic development of the regions it is located in. Often called upon, particularly by government, it carries out many public management study and support missions, notably in the fields of health, education, land use planning, TICs and socio-economy.

ULB is associated with the management of several industrial and science parks in Brussels and the Walloon region. They house three company centres: Solvay Entrepreneur in Brussels and Nivelles, the European Erasmus Business and Innovation Centre (EEBIC) in Brussels, and Wallonia Biotech in Charleroi (Gosselies). The Aeropole at Gosselies is also home to the BioVallée non-profit, a collective research centre for molecular biology and biomedical sciences created in 2001 downstream of research projects carried out at ULB and UMH.

In the Brussels Region, where the University’s headquarters are located, ULB plays a leading role in the TIC programme (Information and Communication Technologies), part of the region’s innovation plan (PRI).

In the Walloon Region, the ULB Charleroi Biopole is a perfect illustration of a successful integrated project which brings together local and regional governments and industrial and university partners. With about 500 people, the Biopole was created around:

The Institute for Biology and Molecular Medicine (IBMM) created in 1999 with the help of European Structural Funds and the Walloon Region

The Institute for Medical Immunology (IMI), a partnership between the Glaxo Smithkline pharmaceutical group and ULB

Several spin-offs, an incubator and a processing centre for the results of academic research in new products and services

These value-adding technology transfer activities are fairly new to the University. They have expanded significantly over the past several years. ULB now has 22 spin-offs, which have created 275 jobs.

Facultés, instituts et écoles de l'Université


faculté de Philosophie et Lettres
faculté de Droit/Ecole des sciences criminologiques
faculté des Sciences sociales et politiques
Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management
faculté des Sciences psychologiques et de l'Education
faculté des Sciences
école interfacultaire de bioingénieurs
faculté de Médecine
école de Santé publique
institut des Sciences de la Motricité
institut de Pharmacie
faculté des Sciences appliquées/école polytechnique
école interfacultaire de bioingénieurs
institut d'études européennes
pôle universitaire européen de Bruxelles Wallonie
instituts et centres de recherche
la formation continue
école d'infirmier(e)s et d'accoucheuses
institut Victor Horta

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) was ranked 183 in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.