About the Programmes
Each master is a full 2-year programme and contains 120 credits. A full 30 credits is reserved for the master’s thesis. Whereas our Dutch masters offer 3 options (research, professional and education), the majority of the English taught masters offer a research option, because this option is most likely to raise the interest of our international students. Only the Master in Molecular and Cellular Biophysics and the Master in Statistics also offer a professional option. Some masters have several specializations, others have only one, but in both cases the scheduled courses are in close connection to the research expertise for which our departments are internationally renowned.
The master of Biology has two major specializations ‘Ecological and Evolutionary Biology’ and ‘Molecular and Physiological Biology’. The student can choose up to 48 credits from these specialized courses. Next the student has to choose 12 to 18 credits from a cluster of methodological courses. Another 12 credits are reserved for individual practical exercises and an interactive seminar. The student has to choose other courses available at the university to complete the programme of 120 credits.
The master of Chemistry contains a truncus communis of 24 mandatory credits. The student can choose 48 credits specialized courses and takes an research internship for 18 credits.
The master of Physics has four major specializations ‘Physics at the Femtometer scale’, ‘Solid State Physics at the Nanometer scale’, ‘Theoretical Physics’ and ‘Soft matter Physics’. The student chooses 50 credits in the specialized courses. For another 40 credits the student can choose courses taught at the university.
The master of Geography has two specializations ‘Environmental Change’ and ‘Space and Society’. The specialization takes up 45 credits, 15 of which are compulsory. Another 45 credits are compulsory and contain substantive courses and methodological courses..
The Master of Statistics has six specializations ‘biometrics’, ‘Social, Behavioral and Educational Statistics’, ‘Business statistics’, ‘Industrial Statistics’, ‘General Statistical Methodology’ and ‘all round statistics’. Within each of these specializations the student can choose between a professional or a research option. The entire specializations contains 62 credits. The master’s thesis takes up 24 credits. Another 34 credits are taken up by compulsory courses.
The Master of Astronomy and Astrophysics reserves 60 credits for the compulsory courses. The student can choose another 30 credits from a list of preferred subjects or from the Master of Mathematics or the Master of Physics.
The master of Mathematics has two options: the option Pure Mathematics and the option Applied Mathematics. The option Applied mathematics contains courses on Physical Applied mathematics, Numerical Mathematics, Probability and Statistics.
The master of molecular and Cellular biophysics reserves 18 credits to remediate shortcomings in the previous training. The student then chooses 36 credits from one of the following specializations: ‘Theoretical biophysics’, ‘molecular biophysics’ or ‘Cellular Biophysics’. A minimum of 12 credits can be chosen freely from the entire offerings of the K.U.Leuven or another Belgian university. Within the specialization the student can also choose between a research or a professional orientation for another 24 credits.
About the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Situated in the heart of Western Europe, K.U.Leuven has been a centre of learning for almost six centuries. Founded in 1425 by Pope Martin V, K.U.Leuven bears the double honour of being the oldest extant Catholic university in the world and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In its early days, our university was modelled on the universities of Paris, Cologne, and Vienna. In a short time, it grew into one of the largest and most renowned universities in Europe. Its academic fame attracted numerous scholars who made valuable contributions to European culture.
The university is located in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium. With the Dutch language's steady rise to renewed prominence, 1968 saw the university split into two new universities. The French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain moved to the newly built campus in Louvain-la-Neuve. The Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven remained in the historic town of Leuven.
Such a rich history of nearly six hundred years has provided K.U.Leuven with its own dynamic international dimension. Today, international co-operation is regarded as essential for a modern university. Top-level research is judged according to international standards and implies interaction, co-operation, and exchange, both of researchers and results. As such, K.U.Leuven is a charter member of the League of European Research Universities, and European surveys rank K.U.Leuven among the top ten European universities in terms of its scholarly output. Likewise with regard to teaching, several quality surveys demonstrate that K.U.Leuven stands on par with internationally respected institutions in a large number of fields.
This academic reputation attracts students from all over the world. K.U.Leuven has been involved in the Erasmus student exchange programme since its launch in Europe in the late 1980s; the growing success of the Erasmus programme later on led to the launch of the Socrates programme, and today the University of Leuven has over 300 contracts under this programme. Each year around 600 international Erasmus students spend part of their study programme in Leuven, while more than 500 of our students share the same European experience at another university. The TEMPUS-PHARE programme was set up for students and researchers from Eastern Europe, while contacts with universities in the former Soviet Union are being built up through the TEMPUS-TACIS programme. The co-operation with universities in Latin America falls within the scope of the ALFA programme.
Besides these exchange programmes, the university has set up a number of international academic programmes aimed both at Belgian and international students. Unlike the regular Dutch-language programmes, the international academic programmes are taught in English. Most of these programmes confer master’s degrees: full bachelor’s degree programmes in English are offered only in the fields of theology and philosophy.
At present, K.U.Leuven caters to more than 31,000 students, around 12% of whom are international students from more than 120 nations. In terms of its personnel, there are 5,287 academic staff, 2,730 administrative and technical staff, and 8,172 university hospital staff members. With regard to its physical facilities, the university occupies a total area of 1,058,445 square metres and it has a total of 26,606 rooms. On the academic side, the university is composed of fourteen faculties, fifty departments and about 240 sub-departments. Further, its network of thirty auxiliary libraries now houses a total of 4.3 million volumes, 14,500 magazines and journals, and 7,492 full text electronic magazines. And concerning its medical facilities, K.U.Leuven supports five hospitals and three affiliated hospitals, with a total of 2,057 hospital beds for the acutely ill.
The Faculty of Science is one of the oldest faculties of K.U.Leuven. Intense collaboration among its departments results in a research-oriented atmosphere, and around ninety doctoral theses are defended each year. The Faculty of Science promotes high-quality teaching based on its interdisciplinary research tradition. Currently, the Faculty coordinates eight bachelor’s programmes and nineteen master’s programmes (eight in English, eleven in Dutch). These educational programmes are directly supported by research carried out in the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental sciences, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy. It also maintains active relationships with its alumni through the Science@Leuven alumni association.
|
