UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

1159 vizualizari | Fii primul care comenteaza

The history of the Universite 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. Finding the financial burden of the three existing universities too onerous, the Belgian government showed little enthusiasm for yet another state university. However, when in 1834 the episcopate decided to found the Catholic University at Mechelen, things began to happen very quickly. The liberal professions and Freemasons, who were promoting the Brussels university project, stepped up their efforts, with the result that the Free University of Belgium, as it was originally known, inaugurated its first academic year on 20 November 1834. From 1842 to 1928, the University was run from the historic Granvelle Palace, situated in central Brussels From 1836 it was to be called the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, but although the geographical term may have changed, the adjective "free" remained. This was a key point. Rapid growth When it was inaugurated in 1834, the ULB had 96 students, whereas it now has over 18,000. The number of faculties and schools also increased in response to the emergence of new disciplines and an ever greater number of specialisations. Today the ULB provides teaching in all the main disciplines. It runs several teaching hospitals and administers research-oriented science parks. This Modernist building, constructed in 1929 by the Architect Adrien Blomme, houses todays's University Administrative offices, including those of the ULB President With the help of American sponsorship, the University moved out of the centre of Brussels in the 1920s and began construction of its Solbosch campus in Ixelles, a district to the south of Brussels. Having become the University's main campus, Solbosch now houses the ULB's administrative and general support services. Most of the faculties are based at this campus, with the exception of the Faculty of Medicine, the School of Public Health and the Pharmaceutical Institute. From 1960, the ULB expanded to a new campus, the Plaine, situated less than a kilometre from the Solbosch campus and undertook the construction of buildings for its burgeoning science faculties. The Pharmaceutical Institute and the Faculty of Science, together with their secretariats, are all located at the Plaine campus. The Plaine campus also houses the Victor Horta Architectural Institute, which is associated with the ULB. In 1970, the University started building the Erasmus teaching hospital in Anderlecht, an other district of Brussels. The Erasmus hospital has now become the focal point for a new campus which houses the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Public Health. The Erasmus hospital is now the focal point for a new campus wich house the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Public Health As a university which is resolutely open to the world, the ULB is involved in numerous international research and development programmes and cutting edge research projects. It has been honoured by many awards, including three Nobel Prizes (Jules Bordet, Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1919; Albert Claude, Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1974; and Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977), several Francqui Prizes (Eric Remacle & Paul Magnette, Marc Parmentier, Mathias Dewatripont, Etienne Pays, Gilbert Vassart, Jacques Urbain, Marc Wilmet and Franois Englert, in the past ten years alone) and a Fields Medal awarded to Pierre Deligne. The ULB is a university of international standing which has carved out a leading place for itself in the international academic community during its 170 years of existence. It today enjoys a place as one of the leading French-speaking universities in the world. Sophisticated tools Since 1836, the libraries of the Universit Libre de Bruxelles have expanded and been decentralised to keep pace with the growing student population. They today contain more than two million books and periodicals, distributed among four major faculty and interfaculty libraries, in addition to a number of more specialised libraries. With their sights firmly set on new information technology, the University's libraries have endeavoured to anticipate new developments. Seizing the opportunity presented by the construction of the new Social Science Library, in 1994, the ULB's libraries equipped themselves with a network and servers connected to 200 consultation points available to the public. These provide access to the on-line catalogue Cible, to more than forty networked bibliographical databases, and to more than three thousand electronic journals, in all academic fields. The library management software allows users to consult its computerised catalogue, which is linked to hundreds of others in the world via the World Wide Web and is accessible from anywhere in the University via the computer network. In order to extend this infrastructure, the University has developed its own remote access system which enables members of the university community to access the ULB's computer and documentary resources from individual terminals, and thus benefit from services similar to those offered by all the major Internet access-providers. The Social Sciences Library offers its users access to the most recent developments in information and culture Having already created its own Internet site, the University is now developing its Intranet applications in order to pool information more effectively and improve working procedures, and thus to make it possible to use its computer network facilities more fully. In addition to this, the University is carrying out research into the use of new educational technologies. The University pursues the goal of providing its members with the most sophisticated computer tools available, from PCs to supercomputers. With regard to small-scale computing, rooms containing several dozen networked computers which are reserved for use by students have existed in most faculties for a number of years. For in-depth study and research, many departments use workstations which in most cases are connected to a network. Furthermore, the University has a major Computer Centre, run jointly with the Flemish-speaking Free University of Brussels (the Vrije Universiteit Brussel - VUB). The Centre has a range of sophisticated computer equipment which provides the University's numerous research teams with invaluable tools. The ULB thus has a stable, upgradable computer infrastructure that is capable of meeting the needs of the university community.

tb_250_6976_Universite_Libre_de_Bruxelles2.jpg

UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

We recommend

On the same topic

Other categories

Study abroad search

Read more on European universities