The Université Saint-Louis is merging this week with the larger University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UC Louvain) after six years of political discussion. Rector Pierre Jadoul will be the new vice rector on campus.
The new academic year starts on Monday in French-speaking Belgium. What will change for the 4,500 students of Saint-Louis?
Pierre Jadoul: “Nothing. Their subjects, lessons, campus and study path remain completely the same. This also applies to the multilingual courses that we organize together with KU Leuven. And the political agreement is that UC Louvain will not have any new courses in the next five years. humane training may start up in Brussels. We are therefore not planning to expand the site.”
That agreement was made to avoid competition with the ULB. So he shouldn’t worry?
Jadoul: “I don’t think so, because the ULB is doing the same thing: it is merging with campuses in Mons and Charleroi, and allowing the academic Erasmus hospital to collaborate with the Sint-Pieter hospital in the Marolles. That is also competition for the Saint-Luc university hospital of the UC Louvain in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe. I found it inconsistent that certain political parties – and especially the Brussels PS – were against our merger for so long.”
How does Saint-Louis benefit from the merger?
Jadoul: “More support and more collaboration. Just think of IT processes. Eight IT people work on our campus, while at UC Louvain there are ten times more. Of course that will help us. But I also see opportunities for exchange. We can now collaborate with the architecture or medicine campus of the UCL in Brussels on themes such as economics or sociology. And internationally we gain access to universities with the best humanities programs. As a small-scale educational institution, it would otherwise be more difficult to get in touch with those big players. That is also useful for the students.”
Can the additional presence of the UC Louvain make Brussels more attractive as a student city?
Jadoul: “That attraction is already there and will remain. We receive a more diverse group of students than the UC Louvain and on average also have more scholarship students, but young people from all over the country like to study in Brussels anyway. You can see the attraction of the big city. you also reach foreign students. In the meantime, UC Louvain will have its first Brussels campus for humanities and can benefit from our expertise. Win-win.”
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
