K U Leuven is located near Brussels, in the city of Leuven, in Flanders - the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest in the Low Countries, and the oldest existing Catholic university in the world. From the beginning it became one of the most outstanding intellectual centres of the Western World. Throughout the centuries the University of Leuven has remained an important centre of higher learning and scientific research.

In 1968, as one of the most important steps in the Belgian federalisation process, the University of Leuven was split into two independent universities. The French-speaking Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) moved in 1970 to a new campus in Louvain-la-Neuve, while the Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K U Leuven) remained in the historic town of Leuven.

Today K U Leuven is Belgium's largest university, consisting of 14 faculties, covering the complete range of scientific disciplines in the humanities, in natural science and technology, in bioscience and medicine, except veterinary medicine. These faculties provide high quality interdisciplinary teaching and university education to more than 26,000 students, of whom 2,300 are international students from about 100 different countries.

Most of the study programmes are organised in Dutch. However, some 50 international study programmes are specifically oriented towards an international student audience and are taught in English.

The university's world-famous library (with its 30 subsidiaries) has more than four million books, and about 15,000 periodicals.

Even though the accent is on fundamental research, major efforts are made to meet the needs of industry and society. More than 4,000 externally funded research projects are currently being carried out. Many of these projects directly involve industrial partners.

The University's interface for technology, K U Leuven Research & Development, stimulates and mediates the birth of spin-offs, and fosters young starters in its Campus Innovation and Incubation Centre.

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