Saint-Louis University, Brussels


UCLouvain Saint-Louis - Bruxelles or Saint-Louis University, Brussels, is a public university in Brussels, belonging to the French Community of Belgium and specialized in social and human sciences.
Prior to 2012 it was known as the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis. From September 2018 on, the university uses the name UCLouvain, together with the University of Louvain, in the context of a merger between both universities.

History

When the Catholic University of Belgium moved from Mechelen to Leuven in 1835, the unused buildings were used to host the newly founded École de Commerce et d'Industrie, which was inaugurated in 1838.
The school moved to Brussels in 1858 and became the Institut Saint-Louis, where the Philosophy Department was founded, which eventually grew to become a university. This was the result of the Catholic clergy's and Pope Pius IX's wish to have a Catholic institution in Brussels teaching philosophy. The department prepared candidates for the higher liberal arts certification that would qualify them to enroll for a university law degree.
In 1891, with the recognition of non-state universities, the institution became recognized as an autonomous university, instead of being a private institution, which was confirmed in 1929.
Over time, the Faculties developed and expanded, and a Faculty of Law was added to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.
In 1925, the university founded , Belgium's first independent business school, together with its Dutch-speaking counterpart, EHSAL. Also, the university established the world-renowned School of Philosophical and Religious Sciences, founded by Cardinal Mercier.
In 1948, the Philosophy and Arts section separated from the Institut Saint-Louis, and continued independently as a non-profit university under the name "Faculté universitaire Saint-Louis". It was not until 1960 that the administrative split was fully effective and the buildings separated.
In 1965, the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences was established and the university's name was later changed to the plural Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis.
In 1969, Saint-Louis starts giving lectures to Dutch-speaking students, in addition to lessons at EHSAL/HEC, but the Dutch-speaking department would leave the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis in 1973, to create the independent Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Aloysius. This later became the Catholic University of Brussels. Both UFSAL and EHSAL merged to create the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, together with other Flemish institutions like Vlekho, which originated from the Saint-Louis-linked Institut libre Marie Haps. In 2013, HUB was reorganized and today comprises the KU Leuven campus Brussel, and the vocational college Odisee. Both are still located in the same street as Saint-Louis University, the rue du Marais/Broekstraat.
French-speaking HEC Saint-Louis, which was renamed to ISC Saint-Louis, co-founded the "ICHEC - ISC Saint-Louis - ISFSC" Consortium of Schools in 1995, and de facto integrated the Institut catholique des Hautes Études commerciales in 2004. Saint-Louis University, Brussels still organises degrees in economics, management and business engineering, on the same site as the ISC Saint-Louis, within its Faculty of Economics, Politics, Social and Communication Sciences.
Between 2004 and 2013, Saint-Louis University and the three other Belgian French-speaking historically Catholic universities; the University of Namur, the Université catholique de Louvain and the Facultés universitaires catholiques de Mons made up the Académie universitaire Louvain network. This notably meant the integration of Saint-Louis' economics and management programmes into the Louvain School of Management. After the reform of Belgian French-speaking universities in 2013, Saint-Louis became a founding member of the Pôle académique de Bruxelles, along with the Université libre de Bruxelles and, by decree, was renamed from Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis to Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles.
In May 2017, Saint-Louis University, Brussels and the University of Louvain officially announced that the two universities were merging in a single institution named UCLouvain, with Saint-Louis becoming 'UCLouvain Saint-Louis - Bruxelles'. Both institutions have started using the name UCLouvain in September 2018.
Saint-Louis' main campus is located on the northern edge of the historic inner city, opposite the Botanical Garden of Brussels across the small ring road. In 2015, the department and programmes of translation and interpreting of the Institut libre Marie Haps were transferred to the newly established Marie Haps Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at Saint-Louis University, Brussels. This fifth Faculty is located in buildings along the rue d'Arlon, near the European Parliament.

Chronology

In 2004, a fire destroyed offices and a large part of the library was flooded following the intervention of the fire brigade. A new library was built and inaugurated in 2005, some elements of the old library remain. The university's main library is installed on the third and fourth floors of the new Ommegang building in 2018.
In 2015, the university acquired an office building belonging to Belfius bank, the Ommegang, next to the University's establishment located at 109 rue du Marais, in order to relieve the institution's infrastructure, whose number of students has tripled in fifteen years. New lecture theatres were built, including the institution's largest auditorium, a new library, a new multi-purpose room for 1300 people, and a residence with about 100 student apartments. The new facilities are accessible since the 2017 academic year, increasing the surface area of the main Saint-Louis campus from 25,000 m² to 47,000 m².

Location

Campus Saint-Louis

Saint-Louis University is located on two campuses in Brussels and Ixelles. The main campus, Saint-Louis, with 48 km² of university space, is located in the city centre, between the rue de l'Ommegang and du Marais, as well as the boulevards du Jardin botanique and Pachéco. The campus is split in two by the Institut secondaire Saint-Louis, forming to the north the "Botanique" and "Préfecture" buildings housing the Institute of European Studies, the university press, the university's official main building and the historical building with the rectorate and the former library; and to the south the more recent Marais 109 and Ommegang buildings, where the faculty and student administrations are located, and several large auditoriums.

Campus Marie-Haps

The courses of the Marie Haps Faculty Translation & Interpreting are given on the Marie-Haps campus, shared with the Haute École Vinci, in Ixelles, in the European quarter, more precisely in front of the European Parliament. The buildings of the Marie-Haps campus are located on either side of rue d'Arlon and historically in the Hôtel Beernaert. The language courses are given in an office building further north, between rue d'Arlon and rue de Trèves, where Marie-Haps' Dutch-speaking departments used to be located.

''Tilleuls'' site

The Marie-Haps Faculty is also located on the Tilleuls site, former Œuvre du Calvaire hospital, which integrated the Saint-Luc University Hospital in UCLouvain Brussels Woluwe in 2003. The Tilleuls site includes a large country house, a caretaker's house, a chapel and the former hospital transformed into classrooms, located on the Chaussée de Wavre.

Organisation

Demographic evolution

Students enrolled at Saint-Louis University, Brussels on 1 December. The university takes its current name instead of FUSL during the 2013–2014 academic year.

Colors=
id:f value:rgb
id:m value:gray
id:s value:gray
id:b value:white
ImageSize = width:500 height:500
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:20 top:20 right:30
Period = from:0 till:5000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:m increment:1000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:s increment:250 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:b
BarData=
bar:2004 text:2004-2005
bar:2005 text:2005-2006
bar:2006 text:2006-2007
bar:2007 text:2007-2008
bar:2008 text:2008-2009
bar:2009 text:2009-2010
bar:2010 text:2010-2011
bar:2011 text:2011-2012
bar:2012 text:2012-2013
bar:2013 text:2013-2014
bar:2014 text:2014-2015
bar:2015 text:2015-2016
bar:2016 text:2016-2017
bar:2017 text:2017-2018
PlotData=
color:f width:20
bar:2004 from:0 till: 1312
bar:2005 from:0 till: 1287
bar:2006 from:0 till: 1769
bar:2007 from:0 till: 1954
bar:2008 from:0 till: 2081
bar:2009 from:0 till: 2197
bar:2010 from:0 till: 2280
bar:2011 from:0 till: 2291
bar:2012 from:0 till: 2431
bar:2013 from:0 till: 2484
bar:2014 from:0 till: 3250
bar:2015 from:0 till: 3508
bar:2016 from:0 till: 3888
bar:2017 from:0 till: 4150

Faculties

Saint-Louis University, Brussels is specialized in undergraduate programmes, for which it has developed unique degrees. For example, it is the only Belgian university organising bilingual or trilingual bachelor's ; Erasmus programmes in social and human sciences; evening schedules; and the possibility of completing double bachelor's degrees in the majority of majors. It is also the only university of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation offering a fully English bachelor's degree; in business engineering.
In total, the university organises 25 Bachelor programmes, two Master's degrees, an Executive master's degree, seven Masters of specialization and more than 20 university certificates of continuing education. Most Master's diplomas and university certificates are double degrees with one or more Belgian or foreign universities.

Research centers

Since its foundation, Saint-Louis has distinguished itself by its university character, which is to produce knowledge in addition to offering it. The first research centres were set up at the end of the 19th century. In 1995, the decree organizing higher education granted the University the right to organize doctoral theses, further contributing to the expansion of research.
The university organises research through three research institutes:
and various research centers:
Saint-Louis University, Brussels has also founded the Brussels Studies Institute together with the two other Brussels universities: Université libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

School of Philosophical and Religious Sciences

The School of Philosophical and Religious Sciences, founded in 1925 by cardinal Mercier, is not a research center nor a faculty, but continues to teach and study philosophy, theology and social and human sciences, to which it has been a major contributor. Chairs of the School of Philosophical and Religious Sciences are always public and have included Paul Ricœur, Michel Serres, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Cornelius Castoriadis, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Lacan, Tzvetan Todorov, Alain Touraine or Pierre Bourdieu.

Notable alumni