Year of foundation: 1970 (in this form)
Approx. number of students: 37,000
Period of study: Mid September-End January; Early February-End June
MCI partner since: 2010
The City
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant. It is located 26 kilometers east of Brussels and has approx. 90,000 inhabitants. It is home to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewing group and one of the top five largest consumer goods companies in the world.
Leuven is a real "student city", as during the academic year many residents in its center are students. Leuven hosts one of the liveliest bar scenes in Belgium. Besides boasting the "longest bar" in Belgium, the Old Market, dozens of bars and cafés crammed into a central square in Leuven ("Oude Markt"), it's also the proud home city of Belgium's smallest bar, Onder den Toog which can be found in Noormannenstraat.
The University
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is the Flemish offshoot of the oldest university in the Low Countries which was originally founded in 1425. Centrally located in the historic town of Leuven in Flanders, the K.U. Leuven is officially a Dutch-speaking institution. With 36,923 students in 2009-2010, the K.U. Leuven is also the largest university in the Low Countries. The university of Leuven was for centuries a major contributor to the development of Catholic theology. With predecessor institutions dating back to 1425, the K.U.Leuven and its French-speaking counterpart, the Université catholique de Louvain, are regarded as the oldest existing Catholic Universities in the world. 